In Chile there is “reasonably independent justice”

He constitutional lawyer Javier Couso referred to the chats between Mario Desbordes and former judge Juan Antonio Poblete to favor the arrival of María Teresa Letelier to the Supreme Court, ensuring that “andn Chile we have a reasonably independent justice system“.

“In Chile we tend to ignore that judicial independence is measured every year by the World Justice Project,
which is like the Rule of Law Index, which basically ranks countries around the world in relation to how effective the Rule of Law is. “Chile is the third country in Latin America after Uruguay and Costa Rica,” he said in conversation with Al Pan Pan con Mirna Schindler.

In that sense, he added that “Chile has managed to have a reasonably independent judiciary. To give an example, Mexico ranks 114 out of 142 countries, Chile is in 33rd place, very close to Italy and the Slovak Republic.”

Couso, using that ranking, added that these types of situations, such as the Desbordes-Poblete case, made the country drop from 25th to 33rd place, in a list “that of course has imperfections, but which is a good measure of how the country is advancing.” or regresses in matters of the Rule of Law. The question is whether it is systemic, endemic, whether the entire Judiciary is in this situation.”

“Let us remember that in Chile, after the military dictatorship, there were about four constitutional accusations, I understand that three of them were successful, regarding ministers of the Supreme Court. Let us remember the black book of justice that Alejandra Matus published at the end of the 90s. In other words, we have two things that may seem contradictory. In Chile we have the possibility for journalism to account for those annual situations,” she said.

“The countries that I mentioned below, which are in the worst places in terms of the rule of law, the good part of Latin America, people don’t even know about this. There is not even the possibility of studying. So, let’s think that Chile doubles the Argentine Republic’s quality of rule of law. It’s here, on the other side. It is on the other side of the mountain range. But many times, I insist, we should not generalize and state that of the more than 20 judges of the Supreme Court, all of them have acted the same. We must listen, and we must judicially investigate the judicial truth of what happened in this case. And in that sense I believe that, I insist, we must try to be balanced. In Chile we have a reasonably independent justice system“he added.

INDH complaint

At another point in the interview, Couso said that the National Institute of Human Rights (INDH) should not file a complaint against Desbordes in this matter.

“I think the complaint that Desbordes has announced against the INDH is as negative as the fact that the person described by the INDH excessively mentions only one politician, Desbordes in this case,” he said.

However, he also had words for Desbordes himself, who usually describes himself as a dialogic politician.

“I would ask for more humility. Let’s see, I understand that a moderate person like Desbordes within the Chilean right, who has made a contribution to politics in Chile (…) is hurt. Desbordes has been someone who has played a moderating role on the right. So, it seems to me that he should honor his history of moderation.”

University of Chile Case

Finally, he said that the University of Chile should cut relations with universities in Israel to avoid attacks against Professor Rosa Devés.

“The idea of ​​canceling those who think differently. That’s what Netanyahu likes,” he said.

“If one wanted to find critics of Netanyahu, they are in the universities (…) they are the last pockets of reasonableness,” he added.