As of 2021, Argentina is the only country in Latin America without a woman on its highest court.
The resignation of Elena Highton from the Supreme Court left a vacancy that was assumed to be filled by another judge, but Kirchnerism failed to agree on a possible replacement during the two years she had a margin.
The Supreme Court has operated since then with four members and the Government of Javier Milei is now seeking to complete the court with a fifth, the controversial judge Ariel Lijo.
Milei wants the court to have a more conservative profile - and in line with his ultra-liberal economic plan -, which is why he has also proposed a second name, the anti-abortion academic Manuel García-Mansilla, to replace Juan Carlos Maqueda when he turns 75 on December 29 and must leave office.
Manuel García-Mansilla, in an image spread on social networks.
Judge Lijo, 55 years old, accumulates more than two decades of experience in the federal courts of Comodoro Py during which he has woven a diverse network of political contacts that does not understand partisan colors.
However, the magistrate has complaints against him for allegedly delaying cases against former senior officials for corruption and inventing cases with inconsistent evidence.
Deputy Juan Manuel López, one of the complainants, describes Lijo as “one of the worst judges in Comodoro Py.”
In a radio interview, López recalled this Thursday that the proposed judge convicted former Vice President Amado Boudou of corruption, but "on many other occasions he has saved politicians, he has saved businessmen, he has administered impunity and he has even extorted."
The presidential spokesman, Manuel Adorni, avoided responding at a press conference about the suspicions that weigh on Lijo and stressed that his election was influenced by the judge's vast experience in criminal law.
García-Mansilla, 53, is a lawyer specialized in constitutional and business law with a conservative profile.
Like Milei, he opposes abortion and considers the current law to be unconstitutional.
The proposed candidate is the current dean of the Faculty of Law of the Universidad Austral.
He has been a lawyer for oil companies and since 2014 he has been the executive director of the Chamber of Hydrocarbon Exploration and Production.
The members of the Judiciary have publicly expressed their rejection of a decision that goes against gender equality.
“It is absolutely disheartening and worrying.
The glass ceiling is more present than ever,” Marcela Ruiz, president of the Argentine Federation of the Judiciary and the Judiciary, denounces by telephone.
Ruiz criticizes that in the 161 years of history of the Supreme Court, only three women have been ministers of the highest court and she believes that once again they have put their foot on them to prevent them from accessing the top of the judiciary.
For lawyer Vilma Ibarra, former Legal and Technical Secretary of Alberto Fernández, Milei “does not want women with power, she wants power over women.”
The associations of judges warn that Argentina fails to comply with the international commitments assumed by the Argentine State regarding gender equality and non-discrimination based on gender.
“Having a Supreme Court without women is pre-Jurassic,” a magistrate agrees with her colleagues.
•Communication from the Argentine Federation of the Judiciary and the Judicial Function (FAM)• pic.twitter.com/vfryVpb2Xr
— FAM (@FAMyFJ) March 20, 2024
Minority in the Senate
The proposed candidates must be put to a vote in the Senate.
For its approval, the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the chamber is required, that is, 48 of the 72 senators.
The path to achieve this will be arduous: Milei's party has only seven seats and it is not enough to add the votes of allies such as Pro (6) and the Unión Cívica Radical (13).
He also needs to convince part of the senators of the Peronist interbloc Unión por la Patria, who are the first minority in the upper house, with 33 seats.
The entry of Lijo and García-Mansilla to the Supreme Court would alter the current correlation of forces.
Lijo, close to Supreme Judge Ricardo Lorenzetti, would with him exercise a counterweight to the majority made up today of the president, Horacio Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkrantz and Maqueda.
The replacement of the latter by García-Mansilla would weaken the power that Rosatti held until now.
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