Drug trafficking: 47 positions of judges and prosecutors able to cover are held back by politics

The name of Lionel Messi he put all eyes on Rosario and the drug trade. But the serious crisis in the fight against this crime and the violence it engenders has lasted for many years. The problem is multidimensional and one of its points is justice. According to a survey he conducted GlobeLiveMedia in official sources there are 36 positions of judges and 11 of prosecutors who investigate and prosecute drug trafficking which are vacant and to be filled immediately. But they are stopped at the National Government and at the Senate.

They report to all levels: the judges and prosecutors who investigate organized crime, those who hear these cases, and those in the oral courts who try them. The claim to fill these vacancies is permanent and historic on the part of judicial bodies such as the Supreme Court of Justice or the Council of the Judiciary and of associations such as that of magistrates and prosecutors.

Some of these vacancies have been vacant for more than five years.

When a post of judge or prosecutor becomes vacant, a public competition is open to fill it. That of magistrates is made by the Council of the Judiciary and that of prosecutors by the Attorney General of the Nation. The contest ends with a shortlist that is sent to the executive branch, specifically the Nation’s Department of Justice. There, one of the postulates is chosen and his name is sent to the Senate for nomination.

The stage that takes the most time is the competition. When it reaches the executive branch and the Senate, although a series of deadlines must be met, the process should be swift. But that doesn’t happen.

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According to official information from the Judicial Council and the Attorney General to which he consented GlobeLiveMedia, Of the 36 vacancies for federal judges investigating drug trafficking, 24 are in the executive branch and 12 in the Senate, led by Vice President Cristina Kirchner. The 11 prosecutorial positions are also in the national government.

“Today I woke up to very bad news. I immediately contacted the mayor (Pablo Javkin), I spoke immediately with the chief of staff. I told him that something else had to be done. We do a lot But of course, something else will have to be done. The problem of violence and organized crime is very serious,” President Alberto Fernández said Thursday at an event in Salta, whose federal court has vacancies pending decisions from the head of state. -even.

Today’s look is on Rosario. In the federal court of this city, 33% of the posts of judges and prosecutors are vacant. There are 24 and eight are missing. Half could be filled immediately: a trial prosecutor and a position in an oral court are in the executive branch and a vacant position in the Federal Chamber and two in oral courts in the Senate.

In Rosario there are three oral courts that try drug trafficking. One of them has no limb. It is the court whose names of candidates appear in the government and in the Senate.

The last time a federal judge was appointed to Rosario was September of last year when she was appointed Silvina Maria Andalaf Casiello in the Federal Chamber. The previous one was in October 2017 when the Chamber also arrived Annibale Pineda.

You may be interested: Vacancy crisis: an oral court has not been in the news since 2010 and operates with eight judges in parallel

But the problem goes beyond Rosario. Last week, the Association of Magistrates asked the national government for a dialogue table. It was after a meeting with the Minister of National Security, Hannibal Fernandezwho said on Thursday “the narcos won”.

In the note, the Association said that drug trafficking does not only affect Rosario. “The ostensible scourge of organized crime projecting across our country, with special power in provinces such as Santa Fe, some border areas, the suburbs of Buenos Aires itself and even within detention centers, which instead of fulfilling their essential function of resocialization have become, in many cases, the base of operations for drug traffickers,” the entity said.

And in these regions of the country, there are also positions for judges and prosecutors to be filled immediately. In the case of the public prosecutor’s offices, the competitions of the two in Jujuy and those of Corrientes, Paso de los Libres, Posadas and Puerto Iguazú, all located in the border area, fall under the executive power. Also those of Río Gallegos, Caleta Oliva and Villa Mercedes. In total, within the government, there are 24 competitions for prosecutors, half sent last year by the acting attorney general Eduardo Casal.

In the executive branch, there are competitions for the Federal Court and the Federal Oral Court of Jujuy, for the Federal Chamber of Salta and for the Federal Oral Court of Concepción del Uruguay, also all border locations.

In the province of Buenos Aires, these are the federal court of Hurlingham, that of Lomas de Zamora, that of Puerto Iguazú, that of San Nicolás and that of Mar del Plata. Also for two places of the Federal Oral Court of the thermal city and three for the Economic Penal Chamber, which represents half of the court. The oldest competitions date from 2018.

More advanced are the names of the Senate candidates. Many oral courts across the country stand out, such as those of La Plata, Resistencia, Bahía Blanca and Comodoro Rivadavia -which have sat in the upper chamber since 2021- in addition to those of Rosario.

You may be interested: Historical deficit: national and federal justice started in 2023 with 24% of vacant judge positions

Why so much delay in appointing key judges and prosecutors for the fight against drug trafficking? Because the appointment of magistrates is historically rigged in the interests of politics. It is an exchange between the party in power and the opposition of names, with a strong weight from the rulers. In the provinces, the federal judges – there are few for each jurisdiction and also the head of the court 1 of each locality is the electoral judge – have a lot of power.

Today it is complicated with the confrontation between the Frente de Todos and Juntos por el Cambio por la justicia where mistrust reigns. The government’s request for the impeachment of members of the Supreme Court and the conviction of Cristina Kirchner last December have sharpened the fight. Nothing indicates that the situation will change in this election year.

The same dispute is occurring in the Judicial Council which has not met since June last year. The body that approves the contests has 84 already completed and ready to process. But domestic politics prevents it.

The vacancies within the justice which investigates drug trafficking are not the only ones. at the beginning of the month GlobeLiveMedia revealed that the judiciary began this year with 24% vacancies for state and federal judges. This is the historical average of the last two decades. Part of this deficit could be resolved if politics stops trampling them.

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