The nomination committees for the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) and the Court of Appeals are already in the sights of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP). A prosecutor’s office is investigating a new case for apparent influence peddling for the new renewal of the judicial branch.
This was confirmed by the MP to Prensa Libre, who indicated that it received a complaint on July 10 against some members of the new nomination committees, working groups that will have to propose the candidates to occupy the magistrate positions of the Judicial Branch (OJ).
The nominating committees have not yet been formed, and Congress still needs to swear in two deans who were pending.
The representative of Mariano Gálvez University (UMG) and the representative of Francisco Marroquín University (UFM), recently appointed after the resignation of his predecessor, have not yet taken office as commissioners.
According to a source from the MP, a citizen whose identity was not revealed filed the complaint against “some” deans of the law faculties. The investigation is being conducted by the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.
In the process of renewing the Cortes in 2019, an investigation was also opened that was known as the Parallel Commissions Case 2020, in which apparently political operators, who will be heard again in 2024, would have been behind the work of some commissioners and the final list that reached Congress.
This year, the Legislative Body convened the nominating committees in April, a process that was challenged through a series of injunctions, most of which have been suspended by the Constitutional Court (CC), which has reaffirmed that the constitutional period of the current magistracy, both of the CSJ and the Appeals Court, ends on October 12.
The alleged facts
The anonymous complaint filed with the MP on July 10 states that a group of deans of the law schools that will form the two nomination committees held a meeting in El Salvador.
According to the complainant, the purpose of the meeting was to negotiate support for certain candidates seeking to reach the Courts of the Judicial Branch.
According to the MP, the complaint states that the meeting was disguised as a workshop, supposedly held in that country from July 5 to 7, one day after the commissioners were sworn in before Congress.
According to the complaint filed by the MP, former prosecutor Thelma Aldana was present at that meeting, along with people of Colombian and American nationality.
The MP claims that the complaint indicates that the deans who participated in the meeting are representatives of four universities: Rafael Landívar University (URL), Mesoamerican University, UMG and UFM.
The last two are still pending swearing-in, since the first (UMG) said he was out of the country when the Congress called the session, while the second dean was recently appointed by the UFM, after the resignation of his predecessor, who would be one of those denounced.
“Spurious” complaint
An attempt has been made to obtain an opinion on the matter from former prosecutor Thelma Aldana, who is in exile, but so far no communication has been established with her.
Thelma Aldana, a former attorney general, led the MP when the now-defunct International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), headed by Colombian Iván Velásquez, was presenting cases of apparent corruption against politicians and businessmen.
Aldana was replaced by the current head of the MP, María Consuelo Porras, who during her term has received complaints against Aldana. This has caused the former head of the investigative body to appear in four criminal cases where there are outstanding arrest warrants.
The cases where Aldana appears are for the apparent overvaluation in the purchase of a building of the MP in zone 5; the Odebrecht case, for apparent fraudulent agreements; another case, for apparent money laundering; and the last one, for alleged ghost jobs, according to the data provided by the MP.
The nomination committee for CSJ is chaired by Miquel Cortés, rector of the URL. The professional said he was unaware of the details of the complaint, but supports the academics, doubting that they could be involved in a case of influence peddling.
The nominating committee for the Court of Appeals is led by Raúl Horacio Arévalo, rector of Universidad Internaciones, who said “it is essential to know it” – the complaint – before issuing an opinion. “I reiterate the importance of doing everything in our power so that we can carry out the responsibility that we have.”
Attacks on nominating committees, particularly the commissioners, will be carried out through legal action, but monitoring groups do not rule out other forms of intimidation either.
Through two statements, one headed by the Alliance for Reforms and the Pro-Justice Movement and the second by the panel of Independent Experts to observe the election of high courts in Guatemala (PEI – GT), they asked government agencies for security.
They emphasize that in addition to safeguarding the integrity of the key actors in the process of renewing the Cortes, it is vital that the headquarters of the nominating committees be protected in order to avoid any incident that could affect the files that the commissions will hear.
In a similar vein, the organizations that make up Foro Guatemala asked that the constitutional deadlines for the renewal of the Cortes be respected. Because the constitutional term of the current magistracy expires on October 12, to date none of the nominating committees has begun their work sessions.
The complaint against the deans was described as “spurious” by Carmen Aida Ibarra, director of the Pro Justice Movement, who believes that the only aim is to intimidate the commissioners in view of the process of renewing the OJ magistrates.
“We are surprised by this spurious complaint that is now affecting the deans. We have already seen complaints before, in 2022, when they opposed the re-election of María Consuelo Porras as head of the MP.”
The commissioners appointed to the MP, according to Ibarra, are those commissioners who have demonstrated independence in other election processes.
For Marielos Fuentes, executive director of Guatemala Visible, It is necessary that commissioners have freedom to work and that any type of pressure or interference with professionals is rejected.
“We believe that members of the nominating committees should be free from any interference, pressure, manipulation, threat or any other situation that might lead them to feel inclined one way or another.”
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