Q COSTA RICA — The failure to appoint nine alternate magistrates (judges) to the Constitutional Court has stalled the impeachment process against Rodrigo Chaves, the former president and current super minister (Minister of Finance and Minister of the Presidency).
This situation stems from the conflict between the Supreme Court and the Legislative Assembly over filling vacancies in the Constitutional Court (Sala IV or Sala Constitucional), which prevents the formation of the full Supreme Court panel that must hear the case.
Last Thursday, Patricia Solano, president of Third Chamber, confirmed the situation during an appearance before the Congressional Committee on Security and Drug Trafficking.
Chaves is being investigated for allegedly creating an illegal campaign financing scheme during the 2022 election campaign, when he was a candidate for the Partido Pueblo Soberano (PPSO).
If convicted, he faces a sentence of between four and six years in prison.
“Until at least one alternate magistrate is appointed to the Constitutional Court, the full Supreme Court could be formed to hear the case. So, it depends on that,” explained Magistrate Solano.
More than 120 cases stalled
As of mid-July, at least 123 cases remained unresolved due to the lack of alternate magistrates for the Constitutional Court.
The problem has persisted for more than seven months (five under the Chaves administration and the last more than two under the current President, Laura Fernandez and affects cases in which a sitting magistrate must recuse, excuse, or be absent due to potential conflicts of interest. Among these cases is the one against Chaves.
If the political deadlock continues, the number of pending cases will keep growing.
The Supreme Court promptly submitted a list of candidates to the Legislature; however, neither the previous nor the current Legislative Assembly has been able to gather the 38 votes (two-thirds majority, also known as a super majority) necessary to make the appointments.
The dispute intensified when the Court withdrew the list of 18 candidates it had sent to the Legislature. Subsequently, last Wednesday, the president of the Legislative Assembly, Yara Jiménez, returned the communication to the Judiciary and requested a new list of candidates.
Other involved
The investigation into the alleged illegal financing of the 2022 election campaign also involves other political figures, including former legislator Pilar Cisneros, former vice-president and current legislator Stephan Brunner, and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arnoldo André.
“They should stop talking about political persecution; what we have here is a legitimate judicial process, with a formal accusation from the Attorney General’s Office, which cannot move forward because an appointment is missing, one that the government’s own bloc, the PPSO, with 31 legislators, refuses to vote for.
That is not persecution: it is impunity deliberately constructed,” stated legislator José María Villalta of the Frente Amplio.
If the process moves forward, the Supreme Court will have to request the Legislative Assembly to lift Chaves’s immunity, which he continues to hold given his role in the current administration, so that he can be tried. However, that effort would have little chance of succeeding, since it is estimated that the 31 pro-government legislators would vote against the removal of immunity.