La Justicia in Guatemala could become a process that allows the freedom of criminals who accept the accusation to achieve a minor penalty, according to analysts who evaluated the procedure for accepting charges, and recommend urgent reform.
Decree 10-2019, approved by the eighth legislature of Congress, has been in force since January 16, 2020, but, in the little more than five years of existence, the procedure has raised doubts about its effectiveness in the country.
The acceptance of charges is a title of new rules added to the Criminal Procedure Code, an initiative that was promoted by Iván Velásquez, formerly of the missing international commission against impunity in Guatemala (Cicig).
Former President Otto Pérez Molina, arrested in 2015 for corruption, accepted the positions in the Cooptación de State. He obtained a condemnation in the case the line previously and was able to leave prison last year.
The capture of Pérez Molina marked the fight against corruption, which was accompanied by social protests 10 years ago. However, his early departure from prison did not indignant citizens as much as the penalty that doctor Kevin Malouf received this week.
The plastic surgeon, according to the Public Ministry (MP), did not provide first aid to his patient Floridalma Roque, who died in the operating room and then Malouf dismembered the body and hid it to try to evade justice.
For the MP, the doctor’s acts constitute homicide, but Judge Pedro Laynez did not opinion the same thing and modified the crime to guilty homicide.
He imposed a sentence of three years and four months in jail, which, for being switable, can be replaced by a fine.
It was a mistake
For Javier Monterroso, former secretary of the MP, the country was not prepared for such a project, considering that CICIG made an error when it promoted this procedure.
“Iván Velásquez was told that this law was not going to be applied correctly, because the Guatemala system is not designed for these types of cases. It allows impunity in severe cases such as Malouf and others of corruption, ”he explained.
Monterroso added: “Iván Velásquez what I wanted was for entrepreneurs linked to the illicit electoral financing system to be less affected. In the end, they took advantage of a proposal and changed it to benefit those who was chasing. ”
In your view, it is necessary that the process have reforms in the short term. One of those possible changes would be to eliminate that the acceptance of charges is a “right” of the detainee, in order to avoid other cases similar to that of Malouf.
“He takes away weapons to the Public Ministry, because it is no longer they can decide, but the union. The judge, in the end, sees the legal requirements and has almost become a procedure, ”he added.
Process as a weapon
For Zoel Franco, a criminal law analyst, the effects of the law need to be revealed; It is even more severe than Monterroso, because he considers that the repeal could be the best option.
Other negative examples that it has observed are the way in which the acceptance of charges could be used to press or blackmail the detainees.
“It is misused and is used as a pressure mechanism to accept charges when it comes to crimes or political actions. It is pressed for people to accept charges, although there are no evidence under coercion to slighter and severe sentences, ”he said.
In his opinion, “this law favors impunity,” and recalled that when Velásquez Cicig promoted it, there was no deep analysis of the consequences.
“Yes, it was a Cicig error promoting it without analyzing the contexts that could be given. They should have done a deeper analysis. There was a strategic reading in this law, ”he added.
For Franco, the case of Malouf is just a sample of how the acceptance of charges has an opposite effect that promised.
“It favors criminal types linked to corruption issues, because it allows the acceptance of charges. While it is true that there are exceptions, in certain types of crimes, such as Dr. Malouf, this law allows a guilty crime to be considered, ”he added.
A possible reform or repeal depends on Congress, whose deputies increased their salary and, despite social rejection, are not willing to reverse their decision.
Defends the law
Fernando Linares Beltranena was a legislator when Congress approved the acceptance of charges. He joined the commission that gave him a favorable opinion and voted for approval.
“The law does work, you have to see it objectively. Do not focus solely on a case like Dr. Malouf and the poor patient. The objective of the law was to lower the default of the courts and give a quick exit to the defendants, so that not everything was jail, jail and jail, ”said Linares.
Although it is in favor of the standard, like the analysts consulted, it believes that reforms are needed. In his opinion, the current acceptance of charges excludes some criminal types that, in his opinion, should also be considered.
“The law needs reforms, and I proposed it when I was a deputy: that I was applicable to all crimes. Currently, genocide is not included, but, for me, the purpose of the law is to achieve confession and reduce judicial default, in addition to avoiding overcrowding in prisons, ”explained the former deputy.
Linares recalled that when he was a congressman he tried to promote that the acceptance of charges also included the crime of genocide, but did not obtain support. “I would apply the law for all, even,” he said.
He even considered that it was a success of the extinct Cicig to have promoted a rule like this, which, according to him, “is fulfilling its objectives in the Guatemalan justice system.”