Wilman Terán, in preventive detention since December 15, 2023, submitted his resignation as President of the Judicial Council, which was accepted by the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control (CPCCS) on December 21. The National Court of Justice, in view of what has already happened, declared the seat vacant on Friday, January 5, 2024. In a statement, its president, Iván Saquicela, announced that he would “send a shortlist to appoint a replacement.”

Referee career

Due to the incorrect use of words and concepts of the current Constitution, the first paragraph of Art. 179 states that the Judicial Council will consist of five “delegates” and their deputies, the President of the State Court of Justice, the Attorney General, the Public Defender, the executive branch and the National Assembly. The President of the State Court, selected from the shortlist, will preside over the Judicial Council.

Logically, the delegate must respond to the delegate, receive instructions, and in addition, there must be a possibility to withdraw the delegation. None of this is possible. Instead of the word “delegates”, the word “members” or “vocals” should have been used, because once the chosen ones are determined, they lose the links that could be assumed to exist between “delegates” and “delegates”, which made them shortlisted.

End of the year

For the procedure of selecting one from each shortlist, the same art. 179, says that the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control must do this through the process of public supervision with supervision and the possibility of citizens’ objections. “The appointed ‘members’ – the word is correctly used, not the incorrect “delegates” -, both regular members and alternates, will hold their offices for 6 years.”

The President of the State Court of Justice today is Iván Saquicela and will be until February 5, 2024, i.e. he has less than a month left until the end of his presidency and it is not certain that he will be re-elected, because his aspiration, because there are other magistrates who aspire to position. He would be the only authority to send a shortlist from which one will be chosen as the president of the Judicial Council.

Anti-corruption and political will

Before the shortlist led by Terán, Iván Saquicela was already president of the National Court, and he then sent two shortlists to the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control, which rejected them, probably because he did not negotiate them. Terán’s case was negotiated and a “consensus” was reached with the members of the plenary session of the National Court, it was like a party, because he was one of them. In August 2023, the fight was visualized, Saquicela said of Terán: “There are unpleasant actions, many say that this has become a circus.”

Again, will Saquicela negotiate the integration of the shortlist with the plenary ministers, who this time would be the ones who can re-elect him on February 5, 2024 or not, what kind of shortlist does he represent? Or will integration negotiate a shortlist with political forces?tern?

Will Saquicela prepare a pre-consultation instruction manual and make it transparent before sending the shortlist? (OR)