Erika Aifán is a very active judge in Guatemala.
Since last week her name has been in the news again due to sanctions announced against her and various statements in support of her.
Head of the so-called High Risk Court D, a function created in 2016 to act on several corruption crimes, he has stepped on the queue of powerful characters involved in acts of corruption.
Not without reactions.
Even a civil servant and an official from her own court were used to spy on her and obtain information about her work.
What happens with Erika Aifán and the desire to demolish her work and take away the cases she has in her hands is representative of the type of tensions and reactions that are generated in some institutional systems. It occurs not only in Guatemala but also in other countries as sinister reactions to the straight line of certain magistrates or prosecutors who face the penetration of organized corruption that penetrates the State.
Among the cases in the hands of Aifán is the "Construction and Corruption" process that involves businessmen accused of having paid bribes to a former Minister of Communications to expedite payments from that ministry. It has also seen the case against five large businessmen who admitted having financed Jimmy Morales' presidential campaign without informing the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. He is also familiar with the Caja de Pandora case, a criminal structure that, from prison, influenced the appointment of officials in the prison system and the charges for the transfer of inmates between different detention centers.
Invoking an alleged "abuse of authority" by Judge Aifán, she has been the subject of an extravagant number of criminal and disciplinary complaints generated by people who have been affected by her decisions.
For each fact subject to investigation against her, not one but four processes are opened: criminal, disciplinary, bar association and Human Rights Ombudsman.
Like the cherry that crowns the cake, last week the Prosecutor's Office, given Aifán's alleged responsibility in committing the crimes of "abuse of authority" and "breach of duties" is under the threat of being dismissed by way of a trial.
Several analysts estimate that these unusual steps by the Guatemalan Prosecutor's Office are due to the purpose of cutting off their investigations and nullifying important investigations into serious acts of corruption. That many of them have to do with nothing less than the process of selecting members of the high courts. Eventually, they will also improve their health, counteracting the prospect of Judge Aifán announcing her candidacy as head of the Prosecutor's Office now that the renewal process of whoever held the position since May 17 is underway.
What has been happening with Judge Aifán in Guatemala highlights two crucial issues in the relationship between justice and corruption.
Within a regional context in which the case of Aifán is not the only one with these characteristics in Latin America or other regions of the world;
there are many similarities.
But it illustrates this matter well.
On the one hand, the penetration of corruption within the judicial systems -at its different levels- to thus achieve impunity.
This is thanks to prosecutors and judges who decide to put themselves “in profile” or come to directly favor components of the organized crime of corruption.
This neutralizes the possibilities of justice action.
On the other hand, that there are independent judges and prosecutors who comply with the standards of the rule of law and who want to act seriously. And that in fact they are acting against the organized crime of corruption. In this, justice would not move a millimeter without the central role of judges and prosecutors who promote serious investigations and seek to determine effective criminal sanctions when appropriate.
National criminal laws and an extraordinary international anti-corruption treaty - the United Nations Convention Against Corruption - provide judges and prosecutors who want to do so with more than enough tools to act. The Convention clearly identifies the judicial system and the public ministry as the crucial institutions in this fight. And, for this reason, it is no coincidence that the persecutory desire from high spheres against a judge who stomps is so powerful and threatening.
It is therefore not irrelevant that part of the "sensitive" investigations carried out by Judge Aifán are precisely about influence peddling for the appointment of magistrates.
Locking the gears of the judicial machinery against corruption from within provides impunity to the corrupt.
Disarming and corrupting justice is, therefore, something that can also happen from within the judicial system itself, as seems to be the case.
There are international obligations in this regard that are quite clear.
In particular, article 11 of the Convention against Corruption, which obliges the States parties to adopt measures to reinforce the integrity of the judicial system -including the public ministry- and avoid any opportunity for corruption among its members, without undermining judicial independence. .
Systematic corruption will continue to enjoy impunity, then, when judicial institutions are unable to perform their duties.
Judges -or prosecutors- who act decisively in corruption cases and who are harassed, persecuted, infiltrated and threatened -like Judge Aifán- are issues that concern the entire society and not just those who operate in Guatemala in the legal system.
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