The Supreme Court of Justice, through its Constitutional Chamber, decided to process the action filed by the lawyer Daniel Mendonca, on behalf of Horacio Cartes against resolution 2102 of June 28, 2018, “By which Rodolfo is summoned Max Friedmann to take the oath and exercise the position of Senator of the Nation”, dictated by the then president of the Chamber of Senators, Fernando Lugo.
In other words, with this, the CSJ promised to analyze Cartes’ request to recover his seat in the Senate. What was striking was that it was processed, just a week after the former president had been declared “significantly corrupt” by the United States. After the wave of criticism generated by this announcement, Pedro Ovelar, defense attorney for Horacio Cartes, announced via twitter that on Thursday morning, on instructions received from the former president, he presented the withdrawal of the unconstitutionality action that the CSJ had processed on the 25th. July since after four years of its presentation, “the decision is absolutely inofficious,” he said in his own words.
Ezequiel Santagada, a lawyer and director of the transparency organization IDEA, said he doubts that the move was promoted by Cartes himself. On the contrary, he believes that it was a move promoted by the CSJ itself to distance itself from the former president. That is, when processing, they can reject the request after studying the merits of the matter. “It did not make sense from the beginning, what he is trying to do now makes more sense by maintaining that he is a senator for life and that he has privileges. Charters that he does not know will serve him due to the current composition of the Upper House, ”he said.
BACKGROUND
There are two similar actions that were already presented years ago. The first, in 2008 when the Court ruled that Nicanor Duarte Frutos, after his time as president, could be sworn in as an active senator. And in 2018, when the same Court ruled that Cartes and Nicanor could hold seats in the Senate. On both occasions, the same Upper House prevented the oaths.
The action was filed four years ago. A month after his presentation, in the face of a wave of criticism, Cartes himself stated that he was no longer interested in being an active senator for a matter of “dignity.” From the Court, they allege that the inhibitions delayed the decision to process the request or not in all these years. Antonio Fretes, Miryam Peña, Gladys Bareiro, Sindulfo Blanco, César Garay, Eugenio Jiménez, Alberto Martínez Simón and Luis Benítez Riera were some of the magistrates who refused to speak.
