A third of the investigative courts in Comodoro Py are vacant
.
It is part of the universe of unfilled charges that the Judiciary has, a crisis that worsens in the jurisdiction that deals with investigating corruption, money laundering and drug trafficking.
Federal judge Luis Rodríguez will leave his office after starting his retirement proceedings,
thus leaving another empty office.
On the third and fourth floors of Comodoro Py are the twelve federal courts.
Only eight of those offices have a regular magistrate.
In recent years, the competitions in charge of the Council of the Magistracy did not go at the expected rate and
crossed by the political dispute
there are key seats in the Retirement Courts that await the shortlists to be sent to the Executive Power so that it chooses the candidates and finally , send the corresponding documents to the Senate of the Nation.
On this occasion, a new office of the Retiro courts will no longer have its main judge, since magistrate Luis Rodríguez requested the use of
a license
for days that he had pending and judicial sources assured
Clarín
that
he will no longer be reinstated
because he will take advantage of his retirement.
In this way it will be the fourth court of first instance of Comodoro Py that will be added to the list of charges to be covered.
In principle, what the Criminal Cassation Chamber does is bypass the subrogation of the court among the rest of the magistrates of the jurisdiction.
In this situation is the federal court 6 that belonged to the controversial former judge
Rodolfo Canicoba Corral,
denounced before the Council of the Magistracy for alleged illicit enrichment.
He retired before facing the prosecution process.
That court is currently subrogated by
Daniel Rafecas.
For the coverage of this position, the corresponding competition has already been held, as well as to designate a regular judge in court 12, which belonged to
Sergio Torres
, now a member of the Supreme Court of the province of Buenos Aires.
In this last case, the best meritorious after the exams that were taken was
Diego Arce,
secretary of Judge
Ariel Lijo
.
However, the Judicial Council has
not yet sent the list of candidates to the Executive Power.
After the death of
Claudio Bonadio,
court 11 also became vacant and magistrate
Julián Ercolini
was once again drawn by lot to subrogate him.
To this list will be added the federal court 9 of which he is the holder, until his retirement procedures are substantiated, Luis Rodríguez, who
came to the jurisdiction in 2012 with the support of Kirchnerism.
Rodríguez
was the judge who
requested the impeachment of Julio De Vido,
by order of the Buenos Aires Federal Chamber, to proceed with his arrest in 2017 in the framework of a case for alleged acts of corruption in which he ended up prosecuting him and sending him to oral trial .
It is about the diversion of funds that should have been directed to the Río Turbio coal mine, YCRT.
X-ray of the crisis
According to official data, at the beginning of the year there are
25% of the positions of national and federal magistrates without filling
and despite the new structure of the Council of the Magistracy - the body responsible for the appointment of judges - the possibility of completing these offices with magistrates will be further delayed.
In part there is a strong responsibility of the Government that
sought to impose
-without negotiation- several judges in key courts.
The most emblematic case was the move to
remove the chambermaids Leopoldo Bruglia and Pablo Bertuzzi.
They could not do it and these two magistrates continue in their positions, although provisionally until progress is made with the formation of the shortlists.
But there are other places that are vacant.
In national and federal courts
there are 242 unfilled charges.
The appointment of judges continues to be a task that requires lengthy administrative processes, and although the Council of the Magistracy had strong internal tensions between the ruling party and the opposition that ended up freezing progress.
According to judicial data, the breakdown of vacant positions maintains that
there are 166 contests in process
and another 10 without even having made the call for contest.
In addition, in the Executive Branch there
are already some 104 documents awaiting approval from the President
and 5 that are already in the Senate, controlled by Cristina Kirchner, waiting for their approval.
Vacant positions today are covered with subrogations: judges who agree to take charge of another office for a period of one year
receive 30% more salary.
In Comodoro Py, a proposal was reiterated: "When talking about the administration of justice, a central issue is vacant positions
, you cannot continue with subrogations
," they told
Clarín
when they learned of the new office that is left without a regular judge.
In the Retirement Courts -where acts of corruption of national officials are judged- there
are two vacant positions in the Federal Chamber
-responsible for reviewing the rulings of the investigating judges- and
six positions in the Oral Courts
that have at their disposal
charge of carrying out the trials with which criminal proceedings are concluded.
In addition, a position in the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation
, a prior instance to reach the Supreme Court with a complaint,
remains unfilled .
