Cristina Fernández de Kirchner produced a powerful political event a few days earlier in the image of the Federal Cassation Chamber, the highest criminal court, headquartered in Comodoro B, when she spoke at a hearing in the case against her known as the “futuristic dollar”. There he rebuked (and expanded to other judges) its members for cooperating with the victory of Mauricio Macri, and thus with the suffering of the citizens. The vice president revealed the major political dimension the judiciary had taken and its destructive alliance with the media and social repercussions. On hearing it, it was also evident that not much had changed despite the ruling party’s judicial reform projects, which were still pending.
Before the opposition began to raise the theory of confrontation within the ruling party, Alberto Fernandez declared in support of the CFK: “Everything he said is correct.” From there, the departure of Marcella Losardo from the Ministry of Justice followed. The delay in announcing his replacement speaks to the enormity of the challenge that awaits him. The judicial issue was the flag of the government, but there was no indication of support for fighting and / or negotiations with all political forces, even within the Todos Front and with the judiciary itself. The list of pending issues has several headings: Federal Courts Restructuring Project to monetize power concentrated in a few, Public Prosecution Law and Charge Form, Appointment of Attorney General, Changes in the Supreme Court, Gender Perspective in the Justice System, Council of the Judiciary, among others. But it is not just about changes in laws, it is about how to settle internal short circuits, how to deal with coherent administration, how to seek consensus, and with what strategy the relationship with the judiciary is directed – which clearly should be in place. Now that the model in which the leadership of the intelligence services has weakened has weakened.
TheThe phrase Fernandez used to explain Lucardo’s resignation says a lot about what is missing or wrong: “Marcella does not come from politics and she is overwhelmed.” He also spoke about the expectation that whoever holds the ministry will gain political weight, especially if the idea of review and control over the judiciary is preserved, as it seems, despite it being practiced in the parliamentary sphere through a bicameral committee or another variable. A series of facts that the President mentioned in his speech to the Legislative Council, explain his concern about a possible new political-media-judicial attack. He alluded to the survival of Attorney General Carlos Stornelli, who was being sued in an illegal espionage case and being protected by his peers, to the relationship of the President of the Chamber of Cassation, Gustavo Hornos, with former President Mauricio Macri, and the penitents, their unrecorded and vetoed statements to support the accusations against former officials. He called the legalization of politics and the politicization of justice. On the day he announced the departure of his partner and old friend Lucardo, he also said: “(Christina and I) have the same diagnosis of justice, the only difference is that she suffers from it.”
No spies, what now?
HJurist Alberto Binder argues that the agreement that Minimism struck in the 1990s with the federal justice system, on behalf of the political-commercial elites, is disarmament. For him it was a “mafia way” to manage judicial affairs with the excellent participation of the intelligence service. The current government began to put an end to it with intervention
And the Federal Intelligence Agency and prevent its agents from interfering in legal cases. But now, Bender warns in a dialogue with Page 12Nobody knows how to handle the relationship with federal justice, and its members don’t understand how to operate. The big question is how to create a new charter that allows for a “higher quality democracy”. At the moment, neither those who are part of the administration of justice nor the political leadership “are at the height of the new political dimension of the judiciary,” and there is constant talk of reforms that are not being achieved while at a crossroads.
This is reflected in the fact that part of the judicial system is not transformed into interlocutor in good faith, and continues to operate with political flair. This requires officials and teams who can make accurate scenario readings in the middle of this uncomplicated game. Continuing criminal cases affecting both government officials and dissidents makes any transition difficult, because there will always be accounts of what will benefit him.
To illustrate, there are recent examples: the verbal court conviction of Lazaro Baez, which includes a possible indictment against the CFK in the court judging her for public works with flimsy evidence; – The Supreme Court’s affirmation of the ruling on Amadou Bodo without giving reasons, which is called “Article 280” of the Civil and Commercial Criminal Procedure Code that allows this; Ratify the absurd judgment of Milagro Sala. In files involving Macrismo, there are almost no calls to inquire but rather an ingenious handling of time.
The role of justice ministers is often not remembered. In the judicial spheres, Minister Leon Arslanian was respectfully mentioned in the early 1990s, although he ended up at the dawn of the beginning of the agreement mentioned by Binder embodied in the famous Carlos Corach handkerchief.. Usually the story of Gustavo Beliz comes out, with Néstor Kirchner, because after revealing the interference of the services and more specifically Antonio Horacio Stiuso, he was forced to leave the country. He is succeeded by Horatio Rosati, whom Elisa Carrillo is set to promote in 2016 to join the court. Others had waistlines. Alberto Iribarne, Anibal Fernandez, Julio Alac, among many, have passed. There were reform committees, ideas and designs, but few changes. German Jaravano, together with Mauricio Macri, advocated deepening the use of the intelligence apparatus to the maximum.
If the new administration in justice gains a strong political presence, it will need to remove key dilemmas and look for channels to implement reforms in the current context.. If this role is in tune with the complexity of the judicial system, it should also address the massive inequalities it reproduces that make it difficult to access the courts and the rights of ordinary people. Some of this raises the constitutional Roberto Gargarella, in the journal Anfebia, in a text that questions the reforms announced by the president because they are not in line with the situation, because they are out of context. Al-Faqih adds the hypothesis that there is immunity for the powerful. That’s not the semblance of the government, with the CFK on the bench.
Depending on the cards on the table, there are three aspects that the new management will not be able to neglect if the plan were to seriously bring about some transformation.
Within the Ministry of Justice, unification will be necessary, something that has not existed in the past year, partly due to differences between officials, a group of them more closely tied to the vice president, such as second-man Juan Martin Mina. The wallet combines many functions and at the same time a provider of services that require connection: the Federal Prison Service, the General Inspection of Justice, the Human Rights Secretariat, the Treasury Department, the National Agency for Controlled Items, the Access to Justice Centers, the Institute against Discrimination and Xenophobia and Racisimo (Inadi), and Car Ownership Registry, among others.
There are two planes abroad: How is the link linked to the judicial system and how to negotiate with the political opposition and within the ruling coalition.
Hot projects
Judicial reform that proposes unifying federal criminal courts with economic criminal jurisdiction, doubling the courts and attorney-general’s offices, and expanding chambers, is stagnant in MPs. The same applies to the bill to change the Public Prosecution Law and amend the majority to elect a plaintiff and restrict their powers. It has about 8 votes, many county MPs. One of the challenges will be how to break the opponent’s motto that everything is designed to achieve impunity. Within the ruling coalition, there are those who doubt that merging the courts will reproduce the current system. When appointing a new chief or prosecutor, the possibility of a real criminal policy targeting large criminal organizations rather than reforming them (called drug trafficking, trafficking, large-scale smuggling, and corruption) is at stake .. Are all at-risk interests preventing his appointment? Why does it seem that no one or a few want to implement an accusatory system that cuts off authority from judges and provides for verbality for all proceedings? What are the main issues that require this reform? It would be good to have this discussion out.
Arslanian had already made it clear to this newspaper that if the changes affecting the Supreme Court were not promoted, the rest would be complicated. In the government there is resistance to progress as the number of members adjusts. But some officials believe there may be at least one vacancy, with Elena Hayton de Nolasco receiving the alert to retire. The rest will aim, as Fernandez has mentioned in new announcements, to dismantle the mechanisms of concentration of higher authority, such as demanding judgments about arbitrariness, their strategy of exercising selectivity and sending messages to the leadership. The plan is to have an intermediate guarantees court, which will inevitably require dialogue with the provinces, because the matter is left to their judicial authorities. Here is a lot to negotiate.
The President stated that he wanted to amend the Judicial Council, as that body was designed so that judges reach the position by convenience rather than by finger, as well as to control their behavior in their office. He suggested modifying his political footprint. It will not be easy. The dream of popular participation in justice, however, is a big change, can be embodied in the law of trial before a jury for federal crimes, where it can enter from evasion and drug trafficking to corruption. Now it remains to be seen whether the government has truly decided to put itself at the forefront of new judicial policy – not devoured by a judicial system dominated by politics – and major economic interests, or if it remains stuck in the grid. Of interests that usually intersect. Which usually goes through this discussion.
