Kirchnerism's secret plan to take over the Buenos Aires Federal Chamber, the court that decides on corruption

Daniel Santoro

09/19/2020 - 19:04

• Clarín.com

• Politics

In

, President Alberto Fernández signed and had three decrees published in the Official Gazette on Thursday endorsing the controversial decision of the Senate majority K to annul the transfers of judges Leopoldo Bruglia, Pablo Bertuzzi and German Castelli.

In normal times it would have taken at least a couple of days.

The rush

.

And the removal of those first two judges goes hand in hand with the secret strategy to

and then the Federal Oral Court 7 which must judge her as the alleged head of an illicit association in the case of the Cuadernos de las Bribes .

A move that not even former president Carlos Menem could specify.

If the Court does not quickly annul the review of the transfers, Bruglia, Bertuzzi and Castelli should return to the oral courts of the Capital, La Plata and San Martín, respectively, which they occupied two years ago, in an unprecedented event in democracy.

Until now, the highest court

, even with an administrative request from the judges for an extraordinary license to be granted until the substantive question is decided: if the removal was constitutional.

After the publication of the decrees, the Court already has

to resolve, unless the opinions of its members who do not want to appear as

front of the Government

prevail

.

While attention was focused last week on the Senate - the opposition withdrew from the premises -

where two candidates linked to Kirchnerism compete Alejo Ramos Padilla and José Boico, among others.

The first, as the federal judge of Dolores, accepted the

maneuver of

the “chacarero” Pedro Etchebest against Marcelo D'Alessio in Dolores, in tune with Operative Puf.

And Boico, a former lawyer for Cristina, had been appointed as a deputy judge of Chamber I of the Federal Criminal Cassation Chamber in 2013 when the then president wanted to prevent the pact with Iran for the attack against AMIA from being declared unconstitutional.

On the other hand, the federal judge and professor of Law at the UBA for years Julián Ercolini

, after the unfounded accusations of the K against him.

At the same time, Kirchnerism also had interviews taken to

.

If the judicial reform that is currently being debated in the Chamber of Deputies is approved, it would merge with the Federal Chamber, constituting

for all corruption cases that occurred in the Capital.

Judges Leopoldo Bruglia and Pablo Bertuzzi (right) in a trial.

Photo Rolando Andrade Stracuzzi

Strategy K is complemented by

a complaint that the former director of Counterintelligence of the AFI and deputy of the Frente de Todos,

, filed against the historic member of this chamber,

The other judge of this court is Mariano Llorens who has not yet been attacked by the K.

And now Juntos por el Cambio hopes that the ruling party will ask in the next few days in the Council of the Magistracy to

, while the Court does not define itself on the

presented by the three judges.

The fight that comes in the Magistracy is that the K will say that there are

in the Federal Chamber and the opposition,

because they do not accept the controversial removal of Bruglia and Bertuzzi, that is,

.

The member of the Magistracy and JxC deputy, Pablo Tonelli, said that so far the Disciplinary committee has only been summoned for Thursday.

If you want to rush the contests further, you should send the interview reports to the candidates early in the week.

said Tonelli.

For his part, the member of the Council of the Magistracy Juan Pablo Más Velez told

that "it is very important that the system for appointing judges by competition works normally to avoid that the anomalies that would result from their inaction become excuses or, worse still, causes to

".

"For this to be possible, in this context, it is essential that each of the powers that intervene in the process

," added the representative of the Buenos Aires lawyers.

To ensure the selection of the best, Mas Velez said that "a

government

that guarantees pluralism

is needed

, a Senate that privileges the election of the best over the like, and a Council that submits shortlists that by their composition and opportunity allow subsequent interventions

.

If the Ks manage to occupy the positions of these two in room I of the appeal court and that the new chambermaids swear, the case of the former chief prosecutor of Santa Cruz, Eduardo Sosa, will be repeated.

Kirchner fired him and when the Supreme Court reinstated him, many years later, in office, he was already occupied and

.

The Buenos Aires Federal Chamber has a strategic role in corruption cases against national officials on duty.

First, the federal jurisdiction - whose judges serve in the Comodoro Py courts -

against national officials based in the CABA.

Then, that court of appeal is the one that confirms or rejects the prosecutions or dismissals ordered by the judges of the first instance.

Until 2015, corruption cases took an average of 16 years to be resolved due to political pressure and procedural obstacles.

And since the change of government,

against these cases.

In reality, the complete integration of that chamber has not been achieved since 2007 and in 2018 there were more empty seats than

.

Horacio Cattani, who together with Irurzun drew the famous ruling on the right to the truth of the disappeared in the face of Menem's pardons, retired in February 2018.

Then Eduardo Farah resigned from the chamber, after the controversial release of businessman K Cristóbal López and asked to go to an oral court in San Martín in 2018. Plan K includes that

For his part, Jorge “Pati” Ballesteros also retired in June 2018 due to the case of fraud against the State of Oil Fuels for more than

.

Attempts to fill those key positions

Last Friday, personal interviews were held with the applicants for two positions in room II of the federal chamber.

They were under the supervision of the members of the Magistrates Selection Commission and Judicial School of the Magistracy, made up of the deputy Graciela Camaño and the rector of the University of Lomas de Zamora Diego Molea, generally aligned with the K.

The applicants summoned to the federal chamber were Diego Amarante, Roberto Boico, Alejo Ramos Padilla, Pablo Yadarola, Federico Feldtmann, Ivana Quinteros, Francisco Posse, Marcelo Martinez de Giorgi, Luis Arnaudo, Ignacio Labadens, Javier López Biscayart, Elena Dilario, Leonel Gómez Barbella, Julio César Di Giorgio;

Maria Eugenia Di Laudo;

Flugo Decaria;

and Susana Marina Echevarria.

For their part, the candidates for the Economic Criminal Chamber, who if the judicial reform is approved, would become a single federal chamber in CABA are: Alejandro Catania, Juan Galván Greenway, Pablo Turano, Esteban Turano, Rafael Caputo, Patricia Mieres, Ramón Bogado Tula, Marcela Basso Craig, Santiago Roldán, Julio Di Giorgio, María Straccia, María Pérez Cárrega, Federico Luspa, Diego Amarante and Matías Latino.

For each vacancy, the Magistracy must raise a list of three to the President so that he may choose one and send his statement to the Senate.

But each candidate needs two-thirds of the 13 members of the body that, for now, the K do not have them, and in this instance the representatives of Cambiemos plan to give the final fight for the integration of this court