Andronicus stops ‘self-prorogations’ and their rulings with a law criticized by archism and the magistrates

A new episode of the long conflict of powers that hits the democratic institutions of Bolivia was written yesterday when the president of the Senate, Andrónico Rodríguez, in exercise of ownership of the Legislative Assembly, promulgated bills 079 and 075. The first orders the magistrates of the Judicial Branch to abandon their positions because their constitutional mandate expired on December 31, 2023; The second validates one of the international loans claimed by the government of President Luis Arce.

The regulations validated yesterday by Andrónico also annuls the rulings of the magistrates, especially those issued by the Constitutional Court (TCP) as of January 2, 2024.

In this context, the rule establishes replacing the “self-extended” judges with the most senior judges of each constitutional chamber so as not to paralyze the functioning of that entity. Yonstructs a similar mechanism for the high authorities of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ).

“This promulgation is to comply with the Political Constitution of the State and the people. We had warned since 2023; If the magistrates extend themselves with a simple constitutional declaration, we would enter a crisis,” Andrónico explained to journalists after the act of promulgation of the controversial laws.

The decision unleashed reactions at all levels of the State. The opposition applauded the position of the President of the Senate for the possibility of ending the indefinite and unilateral extension decided by the TCP to avoid the paralysis of the functioning of that State power; From archism they declared it illegal and “unconstitutional.”l” because those regulations were annulled, precisely, by an opinion issued by the affected magistrates.

“The Supreme Court of Justice, in compliance with the fourth provision of the Plurinational Constitutional Declaration 049/2023 of December 11, of a binding nature according to Art. 203 of the Political Constitution of the State, clarifies to the population and the user public, that has been developing their jurisdictional and administrative tasks with absolute normality,” reads an “urgent statement” issued by the TCP magistrates.

“Brother Andronicus, I ask you not to make a mistake in wanting to promulgate a law that is unconstitutional. We all want judicial elections, obviously, but we have to guarantee these elections. “We want the judges and magistrates to leave, but for that we have to guarantee judicial elections,” said the president of the Chamber of Deputies when reading a statement. In addition, he pointed to Evo Morales as the person who can benefit from this law.

Shortly after being extended, even with the legal mandate of the vote, the TCP magistrates approved sentence 1010 that “modulates” an advisory opinion of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IAC Court) that ignores the “indefinite presidential re-election” as right. At the beginning of this month, with the “self-extension” in force, it approved an opinion that clarifies that the prohibition applies to a “continuous” and “discontinuous” aspiration. With this, he annulled the possibility of Evo running as a candidate. He then gave control of the MAS to the archist MAS faction and partially annulled the December judicial elections. All of this under the protection of Article 203 of the Constitution, which declares “binding, mandatory compliance” and exempt from “further review” the rulings of this court of the Judicial Branch.

The Minister of Government, Eduardo Del Castillo, said he felt sorry for the decision of the President of the Senate, whom he sees as “one more victim of Mr. Evo Morales who has always used youth for his interests.”

“(That law) has a complete lack of legal validity and we are saddened that Andrónico Rodríguez has lent himself to the game of nullifying more than 8,000 constitutional sentences throughout the national territory, but with a nefarious objective which is to seek the authorization of Mr. Evo Morales, transgressing the Constitution,” stated Del Castillo, although the controversial law grants power to the departmental constitutional chambers so that the administration of justice is not paralyzed.

Projects 075 and 079 were approved in a session of the Legislative Assembly on June 6, which was convened and chaired by Rodríguez. The TCP magistrates, affected by this decision, declared that session null and void, through Plurinational Constitutional Order 0041/2024 of June 19, 2024. “All legislative acts carried out by the appealed authority, Andrónico Rodríguez Ledezma, President of the Chamber of Senators of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly, after its notification with AC 0254/2024-CA of June 6“, reads that opinion.

The argument for this action lies in the fact that there is literally no provision that expressly states that the president of the Senate exercises the mandate of the Assembly in the absence or temporary exercise of the Presidency that the Vice President may exercise, such as It happened yesterday after Luis Arce’s trip to the G20 summit taking place in Rio de Janeiro.

Deputy Carlos Alarcón (CC) stated that Andrónico, in his capacity as acting president of the Legislative Assembly, “has acted correctly” by promulgating Law 075 “enforcing respect for the Legislative Assembly as the first power of the State,” and what corresponds is that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal immediately resume the administration of the complete judicial elections and that the extended magistrates cease their functions.

“Tomorrow (today) They have to clean their desks and they have to assume their responsibility with justice, The judges have caused a complete constitutional disaster. They have tried to destroy democracy,” said Deputy Alarcón.

In any case, any law that is promulgated enters in force only when published in the Official Gazette of Bolivia, an entity that depends on the Ministry of the Presidency. Del Castillo anticipated that once the document reaches the Executive within the framework of the validation process, it will be returned to the Legislature with the opinion of the “self-prorogated” TCP magistrates.

For the rector of the Gabriel René Moreno Autonomous University (Uagrm), Vicente Cuéllar, the norm validated by Andrónico aims to benefit Morales, since he has an interest in returning to power and, in this case, through the annulment of the rulings of the TCP.

The academic authority also questioned whether the Official Gazette publishes these regulations. and questioned the CC legislators for having tried to favor Evo. From Creo, Fabiola Guachalla said that the MAS activates a strategy to reunify.

Conflict
The TCP appears as a “superpower”, according to opposition and Evism legislators.

The same
The judges of the Fourth Chamber of the Plurinational Constitutional Court (TCP) are Gonzalo Hurtado and Yván Espada and their signatures are on all the rulings.

Session
On June 6, when the dismissal of magistrates was approved, the archismo did everything to annul it. The building was fumigated and the electricity supply was cut off.