CFK’s nominee to replace Zaffaroni receives more support than rejections
Roberto Carlés, the Executive’s nominee to replace former justice Eugenio Zaffaroni at the Supreme Court, is on the verge of successfully passing the first stage of his nomination to the country’s highest tribunal.
Carlés has been backed by several criminal law experts and human rights organizations and challenged by the Buenos Aires City Bar Association — by far the biggest obstacle he’s had to face so far.
Today is the deadline for submitting letters challenging or endorsing Carlés’ nomination. Sources inside the Justice Ministry yesterday told the Herald that the office headed by Julio Alak was ready to issue a brief recommending President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner continue with his nomination, which will have to be discussed in the Senate.
The ruling Victory Front (FpV) is short of the two-thirds majority needed to appoint a member to the Supreme Court. That means the government is counting on a possible alliance with dissident Peronists — with some even suggesting that a good word from Pope Francis could help turn the tables in favour of Carlés.
Carlés is seen as the “pontiff’s candidate” due to their close relationship.
Although there is still time to file endorsements or challenges today, sources from the Justice Ministry told the Herald that the endorsement letters prevailed over the others, making it clear that the Kirchnerite administration is getting ready to give the green light to his nomination before the Senate, where 29 members of the opposition have already signed a document committing themselves not to vote for Zaffaroni’s successor while Fernández de Kirchner remains in office.
On January 28, Alak nominated 33-year-old Carlés to take Zaffaroni’s seat at the central courthouse located on Comodoro Py. Carlés is seen as Zaffaroni’s dauphin, although he also has been critical at times of the former justice.
Carlés is the coordinator of the drafting commission created by Fernández de Kirchner to overhaul the Penal Code. In conversation with the Herald, Zaffaroni said 2015 was not the right time to discuss a criminal reform but Carlés told this newspaper that he believed an electoral year was the best moment to hold that discussion.
Carlés is seen by opposition leaders as a Kirchnerite activist — a characterization he has dismissed, although he has held some public arguments with Renewal Front leader Sergio Massa, who opposed the debate over the Penal Code reform, saying the bill was too soft on criminals. Carlés used his Twitter account to criticize opposition politicians who refused to discuss the reform.
Support
Carlés’ nomination has been backed by the International Association of Criminal Law, which is the world’s largest group of criminal law experts. The national chapter of that group also sent a letter endorsing Carlés’ candidacy to the highest tribunal as well as the youth group of the association.
The American Association of Jurists and its national chapter also expressed their support for the 33-year-old jurist.
Human rights organizations have also backed Carlés’ nomination, such as Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo head Estela Barnes de Carlotto or Hebe Pastor de Bonafini, the head of the Association of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. Bonafini has long been a close friend of Zaffaroni, who has also expressed his satisfaction with Carlés’ nomination.
“Carlés’ nomination for the Supreme Court was a nice surprise for me. He will be able to provide the Court with the thinking of a young generation of jurists,” Zaffaroni — who on December 31 stepped down from the country’s highest tribunal — wrote in Infojus, the news website run by the Justice Ministry.
Zaffaroni dismissed those who said Carlés was too young to be appointed to the tribunal led by Chief Justice Ricardo Lorenzetti.
“I cannot forget I was 28 when I was designated judge for an oral court. I was 33 when I became a provincial attorney general and 35 when I was appointed federal judge in a BA City criminal court,” Zaffaroni added.
“Age discrimination is more perverse than any other form of discrimination,” the 75-year-old criminal law expert concluded.
Zaffaroni’s colleagues at the country’s highest tribunal decided to keep mum about Carlés’ candidacy. A justice was heard saying that he did not know Carlés and had only heard about him through Zaffaroni.
But there were other judges and officials who backed his candidacy.
Daniel Erbetta, a member of the Santa Fe Supreme Court, has endorsed Carlés’ nomination as has his colleague Omar Palermo, from Mendoza’s highest tribunal. Necochea Judge Mario Juliano also joined them along with Carlos Parma, a magistrate from Mendoza.
The Solicitor General’s Office also supported Carlés as well as bar associations from La Matanza and Quilmes in Buenos Aires province, among others.
Carlés was also endorsed by Legitimate Justice, the association that backed the judicial democratization package sponsored in 2013 by the president and then quashed by the Supreme Court. Legitimate Justice’s nemesis, the conservative Magistrates Association’s opinion was requested by the Justice Ministry but the group that gathers together judges and prosecutors declined to comment.
Commission
Carlés is still working on the recommendations that were issued by scholars for the Penal Code bill. He is expected along with Zaffaroni to sum up the comments to be sent to the Executive. Justice Secretary Julián Álvarez said last year that the government wanted the bill to be debated this year, after being postponed last year following criticism from Massa’s Renewal Front and several other opposition leaders, including Buenos Aires City Mayor Mauricio Macri, who had a representative at the drafting commission, PRO party lawmaker Federico Pinedo.
The only member of the drafting commission to endorse Carlés’ nomination was León Arslanián, former BA province Security minister and one of the judges in charge of the 1985 trial against the military leaders of the 1976-1983 dictatorship. Former Radical party (UCR) lawmaker Ricardo Gil Lavedra was also part of the commission as was former Socialist Party (PS) lawmaker María Elena Barbagelata.
After his nomination, Pinedo praised Carlés but the senators of his party have signed the agreement to block any nomination during Fernández de Kirchner’s last months in office.
A Kirchnerite source said government allies did not know if they could gather the necessary votes in the Senate to approve Carlés’ appointment but he also said that they trusted the Holy See to collect the missing support.
Carlés has long had a close relationship with Pope Francis, who backed his proposal to reform the 1921 Penal Code.
“I met the pope in the middle of the anti-Code campaign. He was well-informed and he also was aware that all penal reforms in Latin America had followed a dangerous path because they had given more power to security forces. He agrees that we are talking about human beings and that’s why we have to take into account, among other things, their detention conditions. That’s the main difference with punitive demagoguery, which always takes aim at low-income sectors,” Carlés told the Herald when he was asked whether Jorge Bergoglio should be seen as a backer of the reform.
Carlés met Bergoglio when he was a schoolboy. And the two are united not just over religious belief but also their passion for the football club San Lorenzo.
Challenges
A source from the Justice Ministry yesterday made it clear that the most serious obstacle Carlés faces was the filing by the BA City Bar Association.
Carlés wrote in his resumé that he worked as a consultant for the BA City Bar Association in 2004. Carlés later explained that he had misstated and was, in fact, an intern. According to the criminal law expert, he arrived at the BA City Bar Association due to his links with the UCR youth organization Franja Morada.
He was also criticized for not informing that he worked for the Senate in 2012.
The conservative National Academy of Moral and Political Sciences opposed Carlés’ nomination as well. Last year, the Academy was one of the most active supporters of Vicente Massot, the director of Bahía Blanca’s ultra-conservative daily La Nueva Provincia, charged with crimes against humanity.
The Court
The country’s highest tribunal is operating with four members: Lorenzetti, Deputy Chief Justice Elena Highton de Nolasco and Justices Juan Carlos Maqueda and Carlos Fayt. The Pink House has doubled down its efforts to remove 97-year-old Fayt from the Court but sources told the Herald that the justice appointed in 1983 was not considering tendering his resignation.
The Court lacks a criminal law expert since Zaffaroni’s retirement and the death of Carmen Argibay, in May last year.
buenosairesherald.com