After interpreting its own regulations, the National Board of Justice decided to suspend the personal interview with the President of the Judiciary, Elvia Barrios Alvarado, scheduled for this November 2the final phase of its ratification process.
Now it is not known if it will be done or when. Interviews with Supreme Judge Javier Arévalo Vela were also suspended and the former prosecutor of the Nation Pablo Sánchez Velarde.
As of today, Arévalo is one of the candidates to be the next president of the PJ. This election is scheduled for Thursday, December 1.
The procedures of the JNJ, created after the crisis of “The White Collars of the Port”have become opaque and unpredictable.
The Board convened a personal ratification interview with six titular judges of the Supreme Court. The ratification is an evaluation that is carried out every seven years to all the magistrates of the country to decide if they are suitable to continue administering justice.
The disappeared National Council of the Judiciary he always took care that the processes under his charge did not interfere with the internal elections of the Judiciaryin order not to favor or disfavor a certain candidate.
That is not happening with the Board, which was already key in the election of the current Attorney of the Nation, Patricia Benavides Vargas. Several magistrates consider that this time the Board also seeks to be decisive in the election of the next president of the PJ.
Thus, he called for for November 2 to ratification interview with the supreme judges Elvia Barrios, César San Martín, Víctor Prado, Janet Tello, Javier Arévalo and Jorge Salas, the current president of the JNE. In addition, for November 3, the former prosecutors of the Nation Pablo Sánchez and Zoraida Ávalos were summoned for an interview.
However, this October 28, the Board decided to review and interpret article 39 of the Regulations for the Comprehensive Evaluation and Ratification Procedure, approved on December 20, 2020.
This norm provided for the suspension of the ratification procedures when there was a disciplinary procedure on the same magistrate. Thus, the processes of Barrios, Arévalo and Sánchez had to be suspended before an interview was called, since there is a disciplinary process in progress regarding them.
That didn’t happen, but in the last few days A report by counselor Guillermo Thornberry was leaked in which he requests the dismissal of Barrios, Arévalo and Sánchez because in 2015 his relatives worked at the JNE.
The Board has summoned for a defense hearing on November 8 and 9 and now the ratification process is suspended. The other magistrates will go through the ratification interview.