The “resignation for health reasons” of the Judge Ileana Pérez, In the midst of struggles between Rosario Murillo and Daniel Ortega, it opened the doors on Friday, October 21, to a rearrangement of the ruling party’s files in the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) that lost its independence decades ago, according to consulted analysts.
The highest court of justice currently has ten magistrates, who have been in office since April 10, 2014. Four of the magistrates perform administrative duties: President Alba Luz Ramos, Vice President Marvin Aguilar and in the case of magistrates Juana Méndez and Virgilio Gurdián, they are part of the Board of Directors and the Judicial Career.
“That means that six magistrates manage the jurisdictional: the civil, criminal, civil (which was in the hands of Ileana Pérez) and administrative contentious,” commented a lawyer on condition of anonymity, for whom it is imminent that the FSLN give way to the appointment of new officials.
Eliseo Núñez: Ortega passes control to Rosario Murillo
While the plenary is expected to hear and approve the resignation of Pérez on Tuesday, who had previously been demoted due to the intervention of the FSLN Secretariat, former opposition deputy Eliseo Núñez warned that what is taking place is the consolidation of the succession in favor of Murillo in the Judiciary, because Ortega is “passing control of the Court” to him.
Núñez indicated that this state power was previously in the hands of characters such as Commander Bayardo Arce and retired Colonel Lenín Cerna, close operators of the Sandinista dictator, and a change, in the sense of strengthening Murillo, would mean that loyalties would have to migrate .
“There will be another player there. I am not clear that the vice president of the CSJ, Marvin Aguilar, can continue to play a role because that is Ortega’s,” Núñez commented in brief statements, in which he also questioned the anomalous process of how Pérez left the CSJ.
Read: Police arrest Roberto Larios, spokesman for the Judiciary
According to sources consulted by CONFIDENTIAL, Pérez’s demotion was due to a backlash from the old corruption cases in which she was allegedly involved. Although the former official is currently in her house, under police custody, since last February she was taken to the El Chipote police prison to answer for the owned by a drug dealer, which was assigned to his brother, who then worked as a civil judge in the town of Rivas.
The resignation also comes after the unexpected arrest of the CSJ spokesman, Roberto Larios Meléndez, also loyal to Ortega. Days before, “by superior orders” The Director of International Relations and Protocol, Katia Jaentschke and Ruth Tapia Roa, respectively, were dismissed.
The former Director of International Relations is the daughter of former Vice Chancellor Valdrack Jaentschke, current “minister counselor” of Nicaragua in Costa Rica, while Tapia Roa was Secretary of Defense. She also briefly represented Nicaragua before the Organization of American States (OAS) and was ambassador to France.
The intervention of the FSLN in the CSJ intensified when last week the leadership of the party took away from Justice Ileana Pérez the control that she exercised over the jurisdiction of Rivas and Granada.
The justice system usually administers cases of valuable coastal properties and drug trafficking in these departments, a measure that left the magistrate reeling in office.
“I see the issue of the Supreme Court of Justice as serious. Forget for a moment how corrupt Ileana Pérez can be, and that Daniel (Ortega) is the one in charge of everything, but the fact that an officer forces a magistrate to resign means that the Police are in an absolute position of power. Nunez lamented.
Former judicial official Yader Morazán agreed in pointing out the arbitrary process of Pérez’s departure, of whom he recalled that he has immunity as long as the legislators do not accept his resignation.
Another version on dismissal of magistrate
According to Morazán, Judge Pérez fell into disgrace after complaints of mistreatment, made by Sandinista militants to El Carmen (Ortega’s residence).
On this particular case, Morazán did not offer details. during an interview this Sunday on the television program This week. “That was something that the magistrate did not measure when making that decision (mistreatment of militants). From that, she begins the persecution against her and they take measures to remove the acts of corruption that have been known for a long time, ”she warned.
As has happened with other magistrates who have separated from the FSLN, the lawyer added that Ortega’s supporters also persecute the closest circle of officials. According to him, the latest events have caused many judicial officials to have already removed from their offices the photographs that they presumed with Pérez.
“There is widespread fear in the institution,” he confirmed. Morazán usually receives information from the Supreme Court of Justice. In addition to the dismissals, the “resignation of Pérez” and the arrest of Larios, there have been other cases of party intervention in the judiciary.
According to him, one of those cases is that of the former director of the Institute of Legal Medicine Zacarías Duarte and his partner, whom the regime allegedly prohibited from leaving the country and took away their passports.
“Loyalty is being sought through repression and the same repression that we see in the streets is also seen in the powers of the State,” he added. Morazán said that the names of Pérez’s substitutes are already being considered: appeals magistrates Octavio Rothschuh and Edgar Altamirano, both with notable records as executioners of political prisoners.
Also: The repressive link of Ortega in the Court of Appeals
The human rights lawyer, Gonzalo Carrión, affirmed that it is shown once again that there is no institutionality in the country, but that the public function is subject to the will of the regime.
He recalled that several factors make the country continue to lose, but he especially mentioned the lack of accountability. This state power is dismantled like other government institutions. “They are sawing what little remains of some column of that ruin called the Supreme Court of Justice,” he said.
