National Association of Magistrates against Ximena Rincón and Matías Walker

Through a thread on X -ex Twitter- the National Association of Magistrates of the Judicial Branch expressed their “concern” for a constitutional reform project submitted on Wednesday, March 13 by Democratic senators Ximena Rincón and Matías Walker. The project in question, It intends for the legislative power to have interference in the judicial branch, since “the judges of the first instance courts are incorporated as susceptible to being constitutionally accused,” the association warns in a statement.

“This initiative represents a threat to judicial independence, because by creating this dismissal mechanism one could attempt to modify judicial resolutions according to the political preference of the government in power, which would be undue pressure,” the magistrates state. Furthermore, they add that said project “It violates the main guarantee that all citizens of this country have, which is the impartiality of the judges, who will rule without fear of political reprisals for their decisions.”

Apart from the problem that this reform implies regarding the separation of powers, the magistrates also allege against the proposed mechanism: “The constitutional accusation is a way of proceeding against judicial resolutions.”“, nor interpretations of the law, nor due to the poor results of the application of the rules, since our legislation establishes a regime of procedural resources for that.”

That said, the association predicts that ““The abuse of this institution would become a way of modeling, via exonerations from the Judiciary, how judges should resolve.”

The motivation that would support this motion is related to the security crisis that is being experienced today, something that the group claims to understand, but “We believe that the legislative projects should point in another direction: to the protection and safety of those involved in organized crime trials, as well as to the prevention and prosecution of these crimes.”

Ibero-American justice systems are not exempt from political pressures. The magistrates highlight that “there have been numerous cases of removals for political reasons since 2001 – the year in which the first ruling on this matter was handed down – and most of the matters known by the Inter-American Court “They are related to dismissals of judges from high courts or lower courts.”

These have always been promoted by the Executive Power of the countries and by their Congresses and, for the most part, “carried out within the framework of the issuance of sentences adverse to the political power in power, something that we do not want to happen in our country,” warns the association.

The union invites the other powers of the state “to review the system of responsibility of judges, where as a union, we have always been willing and available to contribute.”