At first glance, it may seem like a “lawyer problem.” Specialized; That’s not what it is about. According to this appearance, it is a very serious step in the ongoing process of dismantling democracy in Peru. With unfortunate similarities to other contemporary dynamics of destruction of judicial independence. This is indicated by the recent decision of the Peruvian Congress to initiate a “summary investigation” at the National Judicial Council (JNJ) for “serious reasons” within a maximum period of 14 working days. The express aim is to achieve the complete removal of the arbitrator, who is appointed in a transparent public competition.
What’s up? Why is the JNJ so relevant?
First things first: The JNJ is an essential institution in Peru for the independence of the judiciary in general and, moreover, for the independence of the electoral system. Its constitutional task has several dimensions: appointing, supervising and sanctioning judges and prosecutors at all levels, including electoral system authorities. And he did it with professionalism and correctness.
In other countries it is called a “Judicial Council” or something similar and is a type of institutionality that the UN human rights system has promoted and continues to promote. It is seen as a space that can be crucial to the independence of the judiciary by ensuring that appointment or investigative processes are clean and independent of political power.
As Shakespeare’s Hamlet would say, “That’s the point.”
Well, what is clearly underway is precisely the institutional dismantling of the JNJ in Peru at full speed. This latest decision by Congress has an obvious goal: to gradually end the institutional separation of powers that is essential to a democracy. The aim is to be able to take control of the appointment of electoral authorities, judges and their assessment.
So simple and obvious. For this reason, this unfortunate process is already being watched with great concern by the international community.
In clear statements such as the public condemnation before the UN Human Rights Council, which was expressed this Monday in Geneva by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, before the world’s most important human rights forum. When Mathias Cormann, Secretary General of the OECD, visits Peru at the end of September, he will certainly be surprised to see the independence of the judiciary under attack. At the same time, the country is openly managing its inclusion in the OECD, an institutional forum based in Paris that is the most influential in the world in terms of economic development, education and the environment. I say “open” because obviously a country that carries out such an attack on the independence of the judiciary automatically excludes itself from one of the most important institutional spaces for investment and trade in democratic countries.
All this is happening under the war drums of the discredited Peruvian Congress (90% disapproval). It is no exaggeration to say that Congress is run by a “criminal gang,” that Congress is run by a man convicted of fraud, and that several other criminal investigations are underway. For its part, the commission that will “summarily” investigate the JNJ consists of:
Mostly by members of Congress with criminal investigations into common crimes. Three congressmen are accused of illegally reducing the salaries of their congressional staffers. Complaints – all of them – since January to the Attorney General, who still has not acted after more than eight months. The State Department is currently investigating 57 members of Congress for various crimes.
In this kind of comic opera, the interviewed prosecutor Patricia Benavides serves as a useful tool. The JNJ investigated herself for compelling reasons, but built up impunity to get rid of these investigations. If someone sees a similarity to what happened in Guatemala during the “Pact of the Corrupt,” they are not wrong. Observers agree that the current prosecutor in the Peruvian case is very much an “interested party” in the survival or dissolution of the JNJ, as the JNJ has three ongoing investigations that lack details.
A proven fact: When she took office at the beginning of the year, the new prosecutor Benavides fired – vertically – several prosecutors from the cases she was handling. Among others, none other than the prosecutor who investigated Judge Emma Benavides for her alleged involvement in a drug trafficking case, namely the sister of the Nation’s prosecutor. And, oh, paradox! For her part, the prosecutor interviewed condemned the JNJ; nothing less than examining it. By Ripley. Based on this fact and other “pearls,” the JNJ has opened three investigations against him.
It is very serious that, as head of the Public Ministry, in order to block the JNJ investigation, he sought and obtained a first instance court decision based in part on repealed regulations. Since this decision is being appealed to the Constitutional Court, the TC’s responsibility would be very serious if it allowed this gross abuse of institutionality.
All of this is reviving calls for parliamentary elections to be brought forward in view of the impending catastrophe. Meanwhile, the Democratic community – including churches – is protesting against this congressional abuse and government leniency. That it has gone so far as to reject that the United Nations has expressed its doubts about this outrage in a correct manner and in full accordance with the international instruments to which Peru has acceded.
Meanwhile, some international democratic and human rights organizations have suggested calling on the OAS to apply the Inter-American Democratic Charter. International legal instrument proposed by Peru and adopted by the Inter-American Consensus in 2001, intended to precisely address democratic destruction “from within”, as was the case with Fujimori’s “self-coup” in 1992. It is not a sanctions mechanism, but one of good offices and a high level of promoting solutions to democratic crises. Like the one that affects Peru today.
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