Intense pulse for the vacancy in the Supreme Court

The way to fill the vacancy that Judge Anabelle Rodríguez in the High Council appeared to have been raided yesterday, when the Senate awarded a second at bat to nine of the governor’s 27 appointments Wanda Vazquez Garced which he had turned down last week.

Negotiations between the House of Lords and the Executive are designed to ensure that a woman occupies the chair that Rodríguez will leave when he reaches retirement age, as sources have indicated the president wanted. But it will not be the Judge of the Court of Appeal Maritere Brignoni, Vázquez Garced’s first choice.

“It has been hanged. He has 13 votes against,” said a source in this medium of Brignoni, who would need 16 votes to be confirmed.

El Nuevo Día has learned that the deputy candidate for the Supreme Court has already been elected and will be confirmed by the majority of the Senate of the New Progressive Party (PNP).

In return, the Senate yesterday approved three assistant prosecutors, a district attorney, a family lawyer and four members of the Medical Discipline and Licensing Board appointed by the first executive.

For some members of the minority, the senatorial majority action not only proves “improvisation,” but was the result of behind-the-scenes negotiations between the Legislative Assembly and La Fortaleza for the positions in question.

“It is clearly a reflection that they were rejected not because of their merits, but because of a power struggle with La Fortaleza. This intra-party spectacle 15 days after the end of the four-year period is absurd, ”said popular Senate spokesman Eduardo Bhatia.

Puerto Rican Independence Party senator Juan Dalmau pointed out that the action of the majority undermines the credentials those appointees may have for the position.

“This is not doing those officials a good service because it gives the impression that they are getting screwed, when they probably have the merits, but we won’t know because we don’t have the evidence,” he said.

Popular Senator Cirilo Tirado said that what was brought up was a “fool”.

“Playing with the agreements in exchange for some sort of request seems to me that it is not fair for those who have hung up and for others in the future,” said Tirado.

Intense lobbying

Brignoni did not get the 16 votes necessary for future confirmation to the Supreme Court, despite the fact that former Public Affairs Secretary Ramón Rosario and the former campaign manager of elected governor Pedro Pierluisi, lawyer Leo Díaz, lobbied the non-governmental progressive lawmakers, one source said. .

On Thursday, Pierluisi denied there was a consultation process between him and Vázquez Garced, but acknowledged that there had been communications between them on the matter.

“This is not really a consultation process, except that we have communication. The decision is up to her, ”Pierluisi acknowledged.

El Nuevo Día has learned that the lawmakers who have favored Brignoni before the Supreme Court are Miguel Romero, William Villafañe, Migdalia Padilla, Luis Daniel Muñiz, Miguel Laureano, Carlos Rodríguez Mateo, Axel “Chino” Roque and Henry Neumann.

On the tightrope there is also Vázquez Garced’s candidate for the Office of the Comptroller, Gerardo Rodríguez.

The president of the senate, Thomas Rivera Schatz, is in favor of the secretary of the senate, Manuel A. Torres, for the auditor’s office. In fact, during a caucus yesterday, the PNP delegation passed a resolution in support of Torres.

The Senate remained in check until December 26, but Rivera Schatz insisted that he reserved the right to convene the body before that date.

“If it is necessary to attend an appointment, we are ready. It is possible that we will convene this next Saturday (morning), ”he warned.