Facing management failures, they pushed for changes in the penal system and established GACH, which aims to change the CPP

Nine cases clarified Homicide prosecutionAnd they have not yet passed to justiceThere is an asymmetry in evidence collection between defense lawyers and prosecutors, as well as an excessive number of cases, as many as 1,400. Sex Crimes ProsecutorThese phenomena, among other anomalies, have led to a growing number of voices advocating for change Criminal Procedure Law (CPP) was implemented in 2017.

“Prosecutors won’t bring sex cases. Some cases go on for years without any progress. Victims and those under investigation are stuck in limbo,” the criminal lawyer told The Nation. Florencio Macedo.

In addition to the problems already mentioned, there are also New prosecutor Dealing with crime and saturation immediately, poor system security, generating continuous Investigate folder leaks There is a lack of deadlines for cases with media impact and for prosecutors to make decisions on files.

For these reasons, Uruguayan Criminal Bar Association Prompted the creation of a Honorary Scientific Advisory Board (GACH), a replica of the commission used during the covid-19 pandemic. The panel will be led by Tabaré Vázquez, a lawyer and former presidential secretary. Gonzalo FernandezHe was accompanied by professors of procedural law, criminal law and constitutional law.

In conversations with other lawyers, Fernandez was critical of the agency’s operations. Canada Pacific Partnership Because he understood that he had not provided enough assurances to the accused. “With this maxim, the trial can be won in the media and not in the courts,” he repeated to his colleagues, according to El País.

Meanwhile, the president of the Uruguayan Criminal Bar Association, Enrique Mollertold The Nation that the union seeks “urgent amendments” to the Communist Party of the Philippines.

“It doesn’t work well. There is no equality between the prosecutor’s office and the defense. We want more protection for the accused,” Moeller said. He added: “For two years we have been trying to change the status quo Penal systemThe CPP has been amended 16 times since its creation in 2017. We also want to change Gender Law”.

All this is happening against a backdrop of some voices criticizing the identification of some prosecutors with political parties. For example, in a column in El País, lawyer Leonardo Guzman Pointing out: “Given that the system is already shaky, politicians cannot sit idly by and not realize that it is time to rethink the entire regime, not to return to the previous regime, but to produce a new one.” A system without the failures we all see power of attorney helpless.”

The Uruguayan Bar Association proposed amendments to the CPP in Congress, Busqueda Weekly reported yesterday. Macedo, President Criminal Law Committee of Law School One of the drafters of the document submitted to Parliament explained to The National that the Criminal Code lost its “internal consistency” after “successive amendments” before it came into force, which created “contradictions” in your application.

“For example, the prosecution service does not set a deadline for prosecutors to investigate and file charges. If prosecutors do not file charges, the case is handed over to a replacement prosecutor and the investigation continues. There is no deadline because the “clause” of the code has been repealed,” Macedo said.

The lack of a deadline may have determined that at this point, prosecutors Homicide caseThe nine crimes that police have uncovered have not been sent to criminal justice due to excessive workload. “This leads to impunity. The murderer remains calm at home and time passes,” a judicial source told El País.

Before 2017, the Broad Front government had promoted the application of the new CPP, stating that it would put an end to a scourge that had plagued Uruguay for decades: the abuse of power. Preventive prison.

However, changes to the new law by the previous legislature and the current legislature have led to the reappearance of many preventive detention cases. Sometimes, the trial judge will not approve the prosecutor’s request for preventive detention on the grounds of risk of flight or obstruction of the investigation. But the prosecutor appealed, saying that Sue in courtIt turns out they were right and the defendant ended up in jail.

Macedo concluded that the Bar Association project presented in Congress promotes “ten urgent and concrete reforms” while taking into account “structural reforms if necessary.”

Gerardo Perez/El País Archives