One of them will fill the gap left by the current Attorney General, Raúl Melara, when he was exonerated from the position of substitute magistrate to run for the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The nominal and public election was fraught with claims among MPs for alleged “illegality” in the appointment.
Between claims of the deputies of the PCN by a supposed “illegality” to the oath of three lawyers who will fill three vacancies like substitute magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice; the Assembly carried out the nominal and public oath of the new civil servants.
PCN deputies Eeileen Romero, Francisco Merino, Reynaldo Cardoza and Raúl Beltrhán Bonilla strongly questioned his fellow President of the Assembly, Mario Ponce, for the election of one of the three magistrates who Assembly plans to swear in this Friday.
Deputy Cardoza said he did not know who they would be choosing that day, so he has asked to be exonerated from continuing with the reading of the vote.
“Admittedly we are facing a situation laden with irregularities, I am very sorry because you are a fellow PCN party colleague, and you are in a totally dissonant attitude with the rest. You did not have the slightest courtesy of at least commenting on what was going to happen, who are the proposed, is a tamal that corresponds to other political forces.But continuing with this procedure is already flawed because notoriously we want to replace the deputy Patricia Valdivieso (ARENA) to ride (votes) because Cardoza abstained and they are starting to see who they can arbitrarily replace, ”Merino charged.
However, Ponce explained that the opinion comes from the beginning of November that they have the same actors who were being voted, “who had to inform them was the head of faction, for yesterday was not present, to the president of the Assembly it is up to him to direct the Political Commission and the plenary session, I am not missing any duty that the Constitution gives me, I am complying with what the Constitution and the Rules of Procedure command me, it is a vote of the Political Commission reflected in a opinion that has the respective signatures, and to submit to vote this opinion and that the plenary is the last and only one that has the power to decide whether to endorse or not, “argued Ponce.
The deputies of the Political Commission issued an opinion yesterday by a majority of votes to appoint as substitute magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ), the lawyers Alfredo Rigoberto Méndez Peralta, Óscar Antonio Canales Cisco and David Omar Molina Zepeda.
The vacancies to be filled by the new officials were vacant. The names of the new deputy magistrates were taken from the list of proposals submitted by the National Council of the Judiciary (CNJ) and the Federation of Bar Associations of El Salvador (Fedaes) in March 2012 and May 2018.
Lawyer Méndez Peralta will complete the remaining period on June 30, 2021 of the alternate magistrates who were elected in 2012.
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Méndez Peralta will replace Ricardo Iglesias Herrera, after the Constitutional Chamber declared in 2016 his election as substitute magistrate of the CSJ by the Assembly unconstitutional.
The Constitutional Chamber declared his nomination illegal for “the reason of his proven material link with the political party” FMLN.
“Situation that, when dealing with a jurisdictional position, entails the violation of the principle of judicial independence and the principle of representative and republican democracy, recognized in articles 172, 3rd indent and 85, 1st indent of the Constitution , respectively, as well as that prescribed in Article 218 of the Constitution, relating to the fact that civil servants are in the service of the State and not of a particular political faction. “
While lawyers Canales Cisco and Molina Zepeda will have to complete the period as substitute magistrates of the CSJ until 2024, because they will be integrated into the elected magistrates in 2015.
One of the vacancies that had to be filled in the highest court for the period expiring in September 2024, is the one left by the current Attorney General, Raul Melara, who asked the Assembly to be relieved of office in 2017 , because he ran as a candidate for the Prosecutor’s Office.
On November 4, 2020, the Political Commission had ruled in favor of electing Menéndez Peralta, Canales Cisco and Jaime Edwin Martínez Ventura to these positions; the latter served as Director of the National Academy of Public Safety (ANSP), in the governments of the FMLN.
The opinion reached the plenary, but was returned to study by the Political Commission, however, in the opinions approved yesterday the lawyer Martínez Ventura was changed to Molina Zepeda.
President Nayib Bukele spoke on his Twitter account regarding the new appointments.
“Outgoing deputies are trying to elect judges from the Supreme Court of Justice, before the new Legislative Assembly that the Salvadoran people elected in DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS enters. We look forward to the condemnations of the ‘defenders of democracy and institutionalization,'” Bukele wrote.
In the matter, the deputy of ARENA, René Portillo Quadra, explained today that in the current legislature it is up to him to appoint the magistrates of the generation 2012 and 2015 the places were vacant, and that president Bukele does not have power to veto this decree.
“The alternates who will be sworn in today in the Assembly are from the third which this Assembly shall appoint. There is no unconstitutionality, the Assembly that will take office on May 1 is responsible for choosing its third at the time, “said Portillo Quadra.
The deputies of the Political Commission decided this Thursday to appoint substitute magistrates of the Supreme Court, a task that had been pending since 2016.
It should be mentioned that in the new legislature with a majority of elected deputies from the New Ideas party, which represents the Government, will have the key to electing the CSJ-owning sworn magistrates in 2012 the period expires on June 30 this year.
There are five magistrates who will have to be replaced. They are: Doris Llum Rivas Galindo, presiding magistrate of the Criminal Court; José Armando Pineda Navas, presiding magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice and the Constitutional Chamber; Ovidi Bonilla Flors, first member of the Civil Chamber; José Roberto Argueta Manzano, first member of the Criminal Chamber; and Elsy Dueñas d’Avilés, president of the Administrative Litigation Chamber.