He Constitutional Court (TC) declared the competence lawsuit filed by the Executive Power against the Public Ministry and the Judiciary founded and ordered to suspend the investigations initiated against the president of the Republic, Dina Boluarteuntil your term ends in July 2026.
According to the resolution of the TC, the investigations to the president will be suspended and can be resumed “at the end of the exercise of the presidential position”.
“This judgment will have effects from the day of its notification to the Public Ministry and the Judiciary. From this judgment, the investigations carried out by the holder of the Presidency of the Republic must take into account the institutional competence guidelines established in the foundation 136, supra,” reads the document.
As recalled, the competence lawsuit was filed by the public attorney specialized in constitutional matters, Luis Huerta, claiming that both the Public Prosecutor and the Judiciary did not allow President Dina Boluarte to perform her powers in the direction of the General Government Policy and requested, consequently, that article 117 of the Political Constitution is analyzed, referred to the cases in which a president can be accused during her management, for a better interpretation.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office and the Judiciary, a President of the Republic can be investigated in criminal matters during the exercise of their functions.
Within that framework, the head of state had been facing several investigations for deaths in protests, the Rolex case and the Cofre case, among others.
What does the TC failure say?
According to the BC ruling “the presidential mandate completed, both the Public Prosecutor and the Judiciary must continue to exercise its constitutional powers, in harmony with the constitutional principles, values and prerogatives that emanate from the fundamental norm and in accordance with the provisions of article 450 of the new Criminal Procedure Code, in order to clarify the facts imputed to whom the Presidency of the Republic exercised, so that the investigations suspended with respect to their person. Continue with your procedure to conclude the exercise of the presidential position “.
In its fundamentals, the sentence indicates that “the beginning of investigations to the current head of the Presidency of the Republic, without a qualifying legal framework, and the judicial authorization to carry out a set of actions to collect evidence, among other measures requested by the Prosecutor’s Office of the Nation have contravened the framework of powers established in the Political Constitution, since they seriously affected the effective exercise of the state authority.
It also indicates that it is striking that “the Public Ministry being the constitutional body responsible for the conduct of the investigation, from the beginning it has not carried out – on its opportunity – a correct interpretation of said constitutional provision, in order to justify the beginning of the investigations against the head of the Presidency of the Republic.”
“What is even more worrying in institutional terms, is that the institutional position of the Public Ministry itself – which remained uninterruptedly until 2022 – according to which the investigation against the holder of the Presidency of the Republic was limited due to the position and special legal position that holds within the State, has been varied without more by a new holder of the Public Ministry, or without sustaining a reasonable standard of motivation and a reasonable standard Argumentation.
“TC shield impunity”
The former president of TC Marianella Ledesma expressed her total disagreement with the ruling and said that, at the time, this rule would have prevented important information on, for example, the rolex case.
“The Court is shielding impunity. I do not agree because all investigation has to occur with the opportunity, when the mandate ends I am not going to look for the Rolex or where it bought them. From this interpretation the TC is saying that Boluarte can investigate it; every time it becomes more delegitimized with its failures and works in favor of impunity; with this decision it affects the anti -corruption struggle,” he said.
He added that what happened highlights that a reform is urgent not only of some articles (of the Constitution) but also of the TC itself. “The judges who are chosen have to be independent and not be submissive to the power of Congress that has chosen it,” he said.
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