Justice once again served in the eye of the hurricane

Tegucigalpa (special digital processing) – In 2012, a coup devastated the Honduran judiciary Demolished The Honduran state was dismissed by the Constitutional Court for abuse of power, with four of its five members fired. New Scandal A judge is arrested and deposed for alleged extortion, shocking the goddess Themis, but the plot does not end with this action, instead it appears to be a Pandora’s box of a network of corruption that has been warn In the U.S. State Department’s Investment Climate Report.

This new shock to the Honduran judiciary has even affected the country’s president of the department, Judge Rebecca Raquel Obando, who Have to leavedenied in a press conference that the arrest of Judge Marco Valesillo was linked to payments to her husband, let alone that she was part of a network of manipulation of files, uncontested appointments of judges and other actions related to peddling influence in the courts of justice. Raquel Obando assured that she was here to clean up the Supreme Court and that she did not have to resign.

People familiar with judicial issues, judicial workers, court litigants and analysts estimate that this new event is the second strongest blow faced by the judiciary since the dismissal of four judges of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Chamber on a technicality passed in 2012 by the then Honduran Congress.

Four of the five magistrates were dismissed following the court ruling. Failed The charges brought by the Inter-American Court include abuse of power, false accusations, violations of the independence of power, human rights violations, threats and intimidation of dismissed judges, and other criminals.

After a long process, the Honduran state suddenly fired a magistrate for an opposition measure linked to Zeddes, had its trust in judicial personnel, including the police, tested, and was reprimanded for being about to learn the results of a primary election of the then-ruling National Party, in which one of the pre-candidates accused of fraud and demanded a vote-by-vote recount.

This action by the Constitutional Salt is worthy of the entire strategy of the government led by former President Lobo Sousa against those robes who were accused without evidence of being allies of organized crime. The court ruling stated that his dismissal was illegal, arbitrary and an attack on democracy.

The Honduran court considered the dismissal of the Constitutional Tribunal judges a technical blow to the judiciary; time has proven it right, Themis has never been more exposed than at this moment, and her institutionality has never been so deteriorated. The 2009 coup had already made it fragile, and the 2012 coup weakened it even more. In addition to this, the country’s institutions deteriorated as drug trafficking penetrated, and now the former Honduran rulers have become a state. prison Sentenced to 45 years in prison in the United States for drug trafficking.

A “new era” of justice

With the election of a new court and the new government in place, hopes for change emerged; the ruling party, Libertad y Refoundación, Libre, assured that they were facing a “new era”. As is often the case in such electoral processes, the election of a new court was preceded by intense negotiations between the political tripartite represented by the ruling Liberal Party and the opposition National Party and Liberal Party.

In the process, Honduran society saw how the best letters of recommendation to become a judge were dropped by the wayside; meritocracy was not a necessary condition for aspiring to become a Supreme Court judge. Political agreements prevailed, and even a public declaration was circulated, in which three political forces ensured the distribution of positions.

However, citizens and the political class themselves demand that the new court be given the presumption of innocence, as they face a new political era in which a so-called democratic socialist left-wing government will assume the leadership of the country.

but Live capture The appointment of Judge Marco Vallecillo, who serves as coordinator of the organized crime, environment and corruption circuit courts, has helped by making judicial traffic flourish again and reinforcing the old argument that in Honduras justice only stings those who are barefoot.

Vallecillo, who is accused of extortion, is part of a still unclear conspiracy in which the Public Ministry is centered around the figure of Attorney General Joel Zelaya. According to a protected witness from the prosecution, Judge Vallecillo could have used his vested power to dispense justice and support a businessman for whom Uferco had allegedly opened a case for alleged corruption.

In this plot, Judge Valecielo would brag about his connections in the Public Ministry and even with Attorney General Zelaya, to the point that he arranged an appointment between the businessman (now a protected witness) and the Attorney General. Another protected witness (a friend of the businessman, a victim of extortion by Judge Valecielo and other accomplices) stated that the hearing was held separately, at which the businessman would admit to prosecutor Zelaya that he was the target of extortion. Judge Valecielo would ask him to pay 3 million dollars to settle the case, and in the distribution of benefits, part of it would be distributed to the Attorney General himself, another mid-level prosecutor, two other lawyers and Judge Valecielo himself. This is the plot that can be inferred from the statements leaked to the media by the businessman’s friend during the early evidentiary hearings.

According to the friend, after prosecutor Zelaya learned of the plot, during a meeting with the businessman, defense lawyers for the extortion victims were not allowed to attend. According to the friend, Zelaya denied being part of the trafficking chain and asked the businessman to be caught red-handed by a judge on August 17 for accepting the requested bribe.

The accused judge’s defense accused him of irregularities and violations of due process. In this alleged criminal conspiracy, a series of facts have been exposed, showing that the judiciary is seriously polluted by abuse of power, bribery, appointment of judges without approval, and other serious facts. Analysts say that the judiciary in Honduras seems to continue to be controlled by the old and new mafia.

The pot wasn’t covered…will there be more?

Judge Vallecillo’s case will not gain great prestige, but the audio in which Vallecillo denounces that the files on his phone had been “cleaned” by the tax authority itself has overtaken the media, in addition to the stories leaked to the media about content related to the judge operating as the “husband of a senior official” in the judiciary, and other stories that show that we are facing a Pandora’s box that deals a greater blow to the Honduran judicial system.

Deputy Jorge Cálix, the Liberal presidential candidate, is a political leader who launched a harsh attack on the justice system. postal Then he took part in a televised forum. First, Cálix

Then in a press statement he went a step further: He asked Uferco investigation What happened to the files of Guillermo Noriega, a former political relative of the President of the Supreme Court, whose case is before the court. Calix denounced the existence of a conflict of interest, that the files of Noriega and others have disappeared and apparently “they are rebuilding them” in their favor. He then said that the son and son-in-law of the President of the Court participated in the plenary sessions of the Court’s magistrates, but did not participate in the functions of these debates.

He denounced a series of irregularities, including document trafficking, improper court appointments, and other incidents that affected the highest judicial authority: the position of the President of the Supreme Court. All these facts, in Kalix’s opinion, are enough to put the President of State Power on trial for politics.

But Rebecca Raquel has come forward to face the allegations. Although President Rebecca Raquel Obando’s husband has never been identified in the news media or even in Calix himself as the alleged beneficiary of Judge Valesillo’s alleged bribe, the magistrate believes she has been implicated and said that neither she nor her husband were involved in any network of judicial trafficking.

He also defended his relatives’ appearance in court. “With Honor” After denouncing the alleged conspiracy against him, he ruled out the possibility that he would resign. The president of the judiciary announced that he would intervene in the circuit courts headed by Judge Vallecillo and review some judgments to verify whether they were properly given. He stressed that he was cleaning up the judiciary, neglecting to mention the Noriega case file, which he claimed could not be found in the courts and was being searched in various offices.

The Supreme Court’s allegations of corruption and abuse of power are consistent with the complaint U.S. Department of State Investment Climate Reporteach of its parts depicts a “capture” of the nation.

This is particularly true with regard to the judiciary: “Reports of corruption within the judiciary are common, both in local courts and in cases heard by the Supreme Court. The president of the Supreme Court has family ties to the President of Honduras, a relationship that critics and NGOs have pointed out raises questions about the independence of the court. “US companies report favoritism, external pressure, and bribery within the judicial system.”

“U.S. companies and citizens decry corruption in the public sector and judiciary as a significant constraint to investment in Honduras. The U.S. State Department’s Investment Climate Report states that “corruption has historically been pervasive in public procurement, government licensing, customs, real estate transactions (particularly transfers of ownership), performance requirements, and regulatory systems.”

In the Justice Department case, he uncovered the case of a businessman, former member of the Honduran Central American Congress, who used his influence to engage in major corruption through a series of fraudulent business activities in the fields of banking, real estate, etc. For your benefit with government officials.

President Castro’s government Uncomfortable reaction The U.S. State Department’s Investment Climate Report, but more than a month after the report was released, Judge Valesillo’s case was brought in court about what was written in the report, and the report was sold with “hope” that it would be “different”, especially because this was a high court where control fell on a left-wing government in the Reconstruction era of democratic socialism. (PD)