Through the new DNU, Javier Milei's government took the implementation of the new Criminal Procedure Code
from the Bicameral Congressional Monitoring Commission
.
As of this decree, the Ministry of Justice will be responsible for continuing with this task.
The aim is to prioritize the implementation of the Accusatory System with which they intend to
speed up criminal investigations
, with a more leading role for prosecutors during the investigation.
The Federal Criminal Procedure Code that was sanctioned in 2014 - a tool that defines the functions of judges, prosecutors and police - was being implemented in sections and the responsibility for carrying out this task was the Bicameral Commission of Congress that, with prior agreement with the Ministry of Justice, carried out this work.
One of the most relevant modifications of the Criminal Procedure Code is the
use of the Accusatory System
, known as an adversarial system where orality is the tool used to speed up investigations and thus reach, in shorter periods, the oral trial where the file concludes. .
This system currently governs Salta and Jujuy since the administration of former president Mauricio Macri.
In the work agenda, a task that depended on the Congressional Commission, the implementation had to continue in Mendoza, Santa Fe and the schedule included other districts.
Furthermore, the implementation of the new Criminal Procedure Code seeks, with the inclusion of orality in the processes, to
"modernize the mechanisms of criminal prosecution
and incorporates new tools for the investigation of drug trafficking, corruption and human trafficking, among others." criminal phenomena that are part of the jurisdiction of federal justice.”
However, the DNU signed by Milei maintains that the results obtained so far
“are insufficient.”
In this sense, the Government accused the Commission that operates within the Congress of generating an
“indefinite postponement of the entry into force of the aforementioned” Code.
One of the first negative factors of this behavior, says the DNU, is that it “prevents the judicial reform process that began almost a decade ago from being effective and brings serious consequences that negatively impact the modernization, efficiency and correct performance of the justice organs of the National State.”
Among the arguments for transferring the task of implementing the Criminal Procedure Code to the ministry headed by Mariano Cúneo Libarona, the DNU says that “the lack of definitions regarding the implementation schedule prolongs an anomalous situation.”
At this point it refers to the fact that, currently,
two different procedural systems coexist in the country
at the federal and national levels.
In this regard, the Ministry of Justice considered the Federal Criminal Procedure Code
"coexists with the previous system, which is slow, bureaucratic and inefficient
. "
For this reason, they understand that it is "essential to conclude the reform without delay, and provide prosecutors with the necessary tools to investigate and combat organized crime, as well as other crimes that affect our society so much."
Under this same line of argument, the DNU maintains that the stagnation described “directly impacts the organization and functioning of the body responsible for carrying out criminal action.”
This is in relation to the lack of implementation of the new Criminal Procedure Code that is already a decade old, in almost the entire national territory.
This paralysis, in the opinion of the Executive Branch, “makes it difficult to form fiscal units and appoint district attorneys general.”
One of the problems of the Public Prosecutor's Office, currently, is the enormous percentage of unfilled positions it has: 30%, which makes progress in investigations difficult.
Based on these proposals, the Government decided that the process of implementing the Procedural Code, which includes the implementation of the Accusatory System,
“will be led by the Ministry of Justice of the Nation
, which will coordinate its work with the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, the Judicial Branch of the Nation, the Attorney General of the Nation, the General Defender of the Nation, the Council of the Judiciary of the Nation and the bar associations.”