33 votes were announced by the president of the Senate, Óscar Cachito Salomón, and Víctor Ríos was appointed by a comfortable majority as Minister of the Supreme Court of Justice from the shortlist sent by the Council of the Magistracy. That same Thursday afternoon, President Mario Abdo Benítez gave his constitutional agreement.
The appointment of Ríos was probably the most controversial since 1992, when the new Constitution changed the rules for electing the Court. The Council of the Magistracy was created, whose exclusive role is to select and propose shortlists for the Justice system. Although some candidates have been questioned and there have been innumerable midnight pacts, there has never been such a resounding rejection from the most conservative sectors of society. The cartistas, business associations, Patria Querida and the Catholic Church warned of an “institutional breakdown that would damage democracy and the Rule of Law”. That is what the neat statements said, but later their different spokesmen pointed out the real truth. Senator Sergio Godoy did it for HC and the unions: “Our opposition is because of ideological reasons, the relationship between men and women, the parity law, taxing the productive sector, seeing the rich as the problem and as the cause of poverty... of course, when a candidate with that ideology pretends to reach the Court, we will be against it”. Sister Noemi Ayala, the lonely nun who heeded Bishop Edmundo Valenzuela’s call for rebellion, translated the bishops’ politically correct message by assuring that Rios’ appointment would bring calamity since he supports “abortion and gay marriage.”
While being aware of the defeat in the Senate, Honor Colorado attempted a “coup” in the Deputies chamber with the removal of Roberto Gonzalez as representative to the Council of the Magistracy. They offered the position to Jorge Ávalos Mariño and Rocío Vallejo (PPQ), but at the last minute the liberal did not dare to take the step. HC tried to pressure Marito, but could not do it either.
In the Senate, the issue delimited electoral grounds and political/ideological positions. The PLRA llanista did not vote for Ríos. The dispute was clearly seen in the ANR, where a majority of senators voted for the liberal. In general terms, beyond the political parties, the scenario was a struggle between cartistas and anti-cartistas and conservatives versus progressives. The Senate, once again, was the wall that stopped Cartes.
INSTITUTIONALITY. While it is true that the rejection of Ríos’ appointment is ideological, his leap to the top of the judiciary implies a justified fear. In 30 years, it is the first time that a senator is appointed as Court minister, although several politicians have been appointed before, such as Óscar Bajac, Óscar Paciello, Gladys Bareiro or Manuel Ramírez. Throughout this time, an attempt was made to shield the appointment of its own judges from political power, or at least, an attempt was made to maintain a certain distance. A dangerous door is opening. But to say that in the past there was no political agreement is a perverse fallacy. Every minister gets appointed thanks to a pact and to specific “political godfathers”. Another great lie is to set out an apocalyptic scenario of legal insecurity. Paraguayan Justice, for decades, has been one of the most corrupt in the world and little or nothing has improved with the current pseudo-independent judges.
The problem of Justice today is no longer the partisanship but rather the takeover of the de facto powers. The corruption party has stopped being bicolor to become a mixture of interests of all kinds thanks to the link between the claques of magistrates and corrupt prosecutors, law firms, masons, politicians and various unions that pressure and buy sentences. As the Óscar González Daher case showed very well. This is the underlying problem of legal insecurity.
Yesterday in Telefuturo, Ríos clarified positions and dismantled the construction that was made of his profile. With certain irony he pointed out that he will be the “only heretic” in the Court. He was sensitive to climate change issues, ratified his defense of private property and said he was philosophically against the increase of penalties because it does not solve criminality, to explain why he opposed the law that increased the penalty for invasion of private property. He denied being in favor of abortion and equal marriage, but he was in favor of equal civil union, and wondered where the Catholic Church got those arguments from. He even mentioned a meeting with Bishop Valenzuela before presenting his candidacy.
Next Wednesday, Ríos will already be sitting in the Palace of Justice as member number 9 and integrating the Constitutional Chamber together with Antonio Fretes and César Diesel, a key Chamber, the great chess Queen of the Court, as a lawyer pointed out.
Beyond his sense of political belonging, Ríos is one vote among nine and he will not be able to do much if he does not have the support of his colleagues.
Just as others entered as great promises of independence and became mere pawns of the royal power, Minister Ríos’ test before the citizens begins to run.
At the end, his rulings will speak for him.
