One of them will fill the void left by the current Attorney General, Raúl Melara, when he was cleared of the position of deputy magistrate to run for prosecution. The nominal and public elections were fraught with complaints between deputies for alleged “illegality” in the nomination.
Among the allegations made by PCN delegates for alleged “illegality” in swearing in three attorneys who will fill three vacant positions as deputy magistrates of the Supreme Court; the Assembly took the nominal and public swearing-in of the new officials.
The PCN deputies, Eeileen Romero, Francisco Merino, Reynaldo Cardoza and Raúl Beltrhán Bonilla, urged their fellow Assembly President Mario Ponce to elect one of the three magistrates to be sworn in by the Assembly on Friday.
Representative Cardoza said he did not know who would choose this day, so he asked for an exemption from reading the vote.
“It is clear that we are dealing with a situation full of irregularities. I am very sorry because you are a colleague of the PCN party and you are in a totally dissonant attitude towards the rest. You have not had the slightest courtesy to at least comment on what was going to happen, who the suggested are, it is a tamale in line with other political forces. But going ahead with this procedure is already flawed, because we clearly want Deputy Patricia Valdivieso (ARENA) to be replaced to vote (vote) because Cardoza abstained and they are starting to see who they can arbitrarily replace, ” Merino charged.
Ponce explained, however, that the opinion comes from the beginning of November that the same actors who were voted have had, “who had to inform them was the group leader, but yesterday he did not appear, the President of the Assembly should direct the Political Commission and the plenary,” I do not miss any duty that the Constitution gives me, I live what the Constitution and the House Rules send me, it is a vote of the Political Commission reflected in an opinion that the respective signatures, and to put that opinion to a vote and that the plenary is the last and only one with the power to decide whether or not to agree, ”said Ponce.
Deputies of the Political Commission yesterday issued a majority opinion to appoint as Deputy Magistrates of the Supreme Court (CSJ) lawyers Alfredo Rigoberto Méndez Peralta, Óscar Antonio Canales Cisco and David Omar Molina Zepeda.
The posts to be filled by the new officials were vacant. The names of the new deputy magistrates are taken from the list of proposals submitted in March 2012 and May 2018 by the National Council of the Judiciary (CNJ) and the Federation of Lawyers Associations of El Salvador (Fedaes).
Lawyer Méndez Peralta will complete the period until June 30, 2021 of the deputy magistrates elected in 2012.
ALSO: National Council of Justice begins interview process with 62 aspiring Supreme Court magistrates
Méndez Peralta will replace Ricardo Iglesias Herrera after the Constitutional Chamber declared his election as deputy magistrate of the CSJ unconstitutional by the General Assembly in 2016.
The Constitutional Chamber declared his appointment illegal because of “his proven material connection to the political party” FMLN.
“ Situation which, being a jurisdiction, violates the principle of judicial independence and the principle of representative and republican democracy recognized in Articles 172 (3) and 85 (1) respectively of the Constitution, as well as what is prescribed in Article 218 of the Constitution, in respect of which civil servants are employed by the state and not by a specific political group ”.
While lawyers Canales Cisco and Molina Zepeda have to complete the period as deputy magistrates of the CSJ until 2024, due to joining the elected magistrates in 2015.
One of the positions to be filled in the highest court for the period ending September 2024 is the position left by the current Attorney General, Raúl Melara, who has asked the Assembly to be acquitted of the charges in 2017. position because he was running as a candidate for the Public Prosecution Service.
On November 4, 2020, the political committee had voted in favor of the election of lawyers Menéndez Peralta, Canales Cisco and Jaime Edwin Martínez Ventura to these positions; The latter was director of the National Academy of Public Security (ANSP), in the FMLN governments.
The opinion reached plenary but was returned to the Political Commission study, but in the opinions adopted yesterday, lawyer Martínez Ventura was changed to Molina Zepeda.
President Nayib Bukele spoke on his Twitter account about the new appointments.
“The outgoing delegates are trying to elect Supreme Court magistrates to the new Legislative Assembly that will accede the SALVADORAN PEOPLE CHOSEN IN DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS. Let’s await the convictions of the “defenders of democracy and institutionality,” Bukele wrote.
In this regard, ARENA deputy René Portillo Cuadra explained this Friday that the current legislature is responsible for appointing the magistrates of the 2012 and 2015 generation whose positions were vacant, and that President Bukele does not have the power to to veto this decision.
“The alternates to be sworn into the General Assembly today are from the third who must appoint this Assembly. There is no unconstitutionality, the Assembly taking office on May 1 is responsible for the election of the third at that time, ”justified Portillo Cuadra.
The deputies of the Political Commission decided on Thursday to appoint deputy magistrates to the Supreme Court, a task they have had to do since 2016.
It is worth noting that the new legislature with a majority of elected deputies from the New Ideas party, representing the government, will have the key to elect the CSJ’s own magistrates, sworn in in 2012, whose term ends at 30 June of this year. .
There are five magistrates to be replaced. These are: Doris Luz Rivas Galindo, president of the criminal chamber; José Armando Pineda Navas, Presiding Magistrate of the Supreme Court and of the Constitutional Chamber; Ovidio Bonilla Flores, first member of the Sala de lo Civil; José Roberto Argueta Manzano, first member of the criminal chamber; and Elsy Dueñas de Avilés, Chairman of the Chamber for Administrative Disputes.