Candidates for membership of the high courts in the period 2024-2029 include several judges, prosecutors and lawyers sanctioned for “corrupt” by the United States and the European Union (EU).
Guatemala’s president, Bernardo Arévalo, called on Tuesday to elect the best candidates for the positions of magistrates of the judiciary, who, according to the president, is captured by “corrupt interests.”
A commission of academics, judges and delegates from the bar’s union must hand Congress over to Congress on Monday the candidates to elect the 13 new members of the Supreme Court and nearly 300 appeals court judges, who must take office by Oct.
“I call on the commissioners […] to carry out an objective and rigorous evaluation of the life sheets of the applicants to determine whether or not they meet the requirements of suitability, capacity and honesty required by the Constitution,” Arévalo said at a press conference.
Candidates for membership of the high courts in the period 2024-2029 include several judges, prosecutors and lawyers sanctioned for “corrupt” by the United States and the European Union (EU).
The Social Democratic president asked the commission to include in the payrolls “only legal professionals whose professional career demonstrates a commitment to justice.”
He noted that the country “has demonstrated its impetuous desire for change” and trusts that “it will act to prevent justice from continuing to be captured by corrupt interests.”
One of the candidates for the appeals courts is the questioned prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche, who has launched investigations against Arévalo and last year’s elections, which put the presidential transition at risk in January.
Curruchiche and her boss, the Attorney General, Consuelo Porras, are sanctioned by Washington and the EU, which consider them “corrupt” and “undemocratic.”
“We are at a critical moment for the justice of the country,” said the president, who called on the citizenry to monitor this process.
An observation mission of the Organization of American States (OAS), requested by the Guatemalan government, is due to deliver on Wednesday a preliminary report on its work, which began in July.
A panel of international experts last week expressed concern about signs of “parallel negotiations by corrupt economic-political actors” to favor certain aspirants linked to them.
This article has been translated after first appearing Diario El Mundo