Judge Ileana Pérez, president of the Civil and Family Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ), resigned cornered by political pressure from the Secretariat of the Sandinista National Liberation Front, that had intensified in the last week.
The letter of resignation is dated Friday, October 21. It was addressed to the first secretary of the National Assembly and in it Pérez argued “health reasons” to resign from a position he assumed in 2014 with the support of the Daniel Ortega regime, after the death of Sandinista magistrate Ligia Molina.
“I am writing to you in order to present my resignation from the position of magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice for health reasons and that requires attention, making the position available to you,” wrote Pérez, who was demoted last week by the ruling party leadership.
The information on his resignation was revealed by the media of the presidential family, which also announced that the communication will be officially presented next Tuesday in the National Assembly, under the control of Ortega, for its immediate approval.
In days past, the regime had taken away the district of Rivas and Granada, where the justice system usually manages cases of valuable coastal properties and drug trafficking. According to sources consulted by CONFIDENTIALthe demotion is a consequence of the aftermath of old corruption cases, in which she was allegedly involved.
Pérez is the fourth official to fall as a result of the FSLN’s intervention in the judiciary, thus reaffirming party control in the institution, characterized as the repressive arm of the dictatorship. In addition to the magistrate, the spokesperson for the CSJ, Roberto Larios was arrestedeitherand before they dismissed the director of international relations and protocol of the same institution.
On Thursday, October 20, amid speculation about an alleged transfer to the El Chipote police prison to be investigated, the Judiciary published a press release in which they reported the participation of Judge Pérez in a workshop on the specialty of evidence in the civil process with a gender perspective.
However, later, this press release was removed from the website of the Judicial Branch. Pérez, the day of her alleged appointment at El Chipote, answered a phone call and refused to comment on her case, arguing that she was “busy at the gym.” This Saturday, October 22, her mobile mailbox was full.
Judge Ileana Pérez bgarlic police custody
According to sources of CONFIDENTIAL, the senior official is in her home under police custody in what represents a resounding fall for one of the magistrates most loyal to Ortega in the CSJ. In that sense, they commented, that the dictator supported her despite the recommendation to “get out of her” due to a host of allegations of corruption and arbitrariness, including abuses against her subordinates in the departments of Rivas and Granada.
Faced with questioning, the adviser on security issues of the dictatorship, Néstor Moncada Lau, and the vice president of the CSJ and political secretary of the FSLN in the institution, Marvin Aguilar García, supposedly defended the magistrate.
The same sources indicated that in recent weeks, Pérez was devoted to “cleaning traces” in public records about precise movements for his benefit and his environment. They also claim that “pages torn from the books” of the records related to this issue appeared.
Pérez’s fall from grace began last February 4 when she was taken to the El Chipote police prison. Then she was questioned about the case of the property of a drug trafficker, which she was seized and assigned in her territory to her brother. Emilio Chan Lopez, who held the position of civil judge in Rivas and was later sent north to continue dispensing justice. She continued in charge of her without saying a word about it.
