Nicolás Wiñazki
02/23/2020 - 22:01
- Clarín.com
- Politics
It was Nestor Kirchner's dream. And that of Cristina Fernández, who promoted that desire for supremacy in public events and speeches. Alberto Fernández is about to do it. Almost without talking about it. The new Government, assumed last December 10, and just after a judicial fair, is achieving a reform of the Judicial Power only in its kind since the return of democracy in 1983. The President may appoint hundreds of judges and prosecutors to fill positions that would remain vacant in all the fueros. And in all instances: investigative courts, Appeals and Cassation Chambers, and even in oral courts.
Since the Casa Rosada announced the reform of the special retirement system for employees of the Judiciary, several dozen resignations of magistrates and prosecutors have been formalized. They are women and men who prefer to preserve what they will receive from retirement according to the pension system they contributed for decades rather than resigning what they would be paid if they do not leave their positions before the new rules are imposed. All of them had already begun the retirement process, but a good part of them have not yet turned 75, so they could continue working for years.
The modifications to the pension plan of Justice will balance down the retirements of the Judiciary. The Government included the bill on this issue and will be discussed in the Chamber of Deputies next Thursday. According to data from the Association of Prosecutors and that of Magistrates, until last Thursday they had submitted their resignation to their sixteen prosecutors and twenty-four judges. The same sources of courts admit that the figure increased. In the Council of the Magistracy, the body that regulates the work of the judges, the maximum calculation made by their legal and political authorities indicates that around one hundred and fifty judges will resign. The exodus in Justice began.
Was it a purpose sought on purpose sought by the Government? Sources of the ruling party swear no, but in off the record they admit that massive resignations in Justice will help redesign "a corporation of permanent power."
In the Judiciary, through their different associations, they complain that the Casa Rosada takes advantage of the move to reduce the National Budget.
For a broken pension system (like those in many countries of the world) that judicial retirees charge, on average, 550,000 pesos, it sounds bulky.
Even in the ruling party, they detected the highest retirement charged by a former Justice official. It is 771,000 pesos monthly. It is equivalent to 55 times the minimum retirement of other former workers who contributed to the "normal" pension plan.
According to the ruling, in the pension system there are 17,600 magistrates and officials with an average monthly contribution of contributions of $ 32,600. Among judicial retirees, 7,000 have an average credit of $ 289,000.
The "expenses" of the State to support the retirees of the courts are equivalent to 9.2 billion pesos by 2020.
In the Government they believe that when exposing these numbers the majority of the public opinion will consider that the change in the pension system of the judicial employees will be a positive measure.
In the judiciary they accept that the retirements that their former members charge are high, but they defend themselves by arguing that each employee makes monthly contributions that far exceed the average of any other worker registered by the State.
To that they add a political-legal argument: important judges, prosecutors and chambermaids assure that the true intention of the Government is to provoke a cataract of resignations to "take over" Justice.
The Judicial Guild, by Julio Piumato, presented an alternative project to that of the ruling party. And summoned a strike for Thursday 27.
Due to the resignations of judges already confirmed, many oral courts, for example, have already been encephalous. That causes the suspension of the trials that they carried out. This is what happens, for example, with the Federal Oral Court N 6. Julio Panelo and José Martínez Sobrino resigned, as published by La Nación. Two beneficiaries of this situation are former officials K Julio De Vido and Ricardo Jaime, the main defendants in a corruption trial of great magnitude that was processed in that court. Until now.
Clarín learned that this week the resignations of four magistrates that make up the highest court, the Criminal Cassation Chamber, will be formalized. And to them will be added another ten magistrates that integrate federal oral courts.
If this information is confirmed, filtered to this newspaper by sources directly involved in this story, many other corruption trials could be suspended.
The resignations could generate vacancies in the oral courts of the ordinary jurisdiction. "They do not understand anything: cases of rape or robbery are going to go to nothing, with defendants perhaps guilty in freedom," complained to Clarin one of the most experienced men in federal courts.
Another federal prosecutor, who investigates corruption cases that worry the government asked to speak from anonymity in order to express himself in a brutal way: "They discuss that they are not changing the retirement to cause a reform of forced Justice," he said.
Among the most reputable men of Justice who announced that they will submit the resignation is, for instance, the prosecutor of the Criminal Cassation Chamber, Raúl Pleé. He has held that position for 27 years, for a decade he was also an anti-laundering prosecutor, an economic and fiscal criminal judge of the same jurisdiction, among other charges. Pleé told his environment that he contributed for 47 years to have a retirement allowed by law.
The bill will begin to be analyzed on Wednesday in Congress. Members of Justice would expose the problems that will lead to the functioning of the courts and point to a key issue in the midst of negotiations with the IMF: How can a country that empties its courts sustain legal security?
The Government must also submit its formal judicial reform plan. And finish implementing the new Criminal Procedure Code, devised by the chambermaid Mariano Borinsky.
And will the Supreme Court be issued? In the Government they are beginning to analyze the idea of extending the members of the highest court from 5 to 7.
That's another history.