The bench bosses had one more day without activities because the president of Congress, Nery Ramos, did not summon them to the usual block chief meeting every Monday. When we do not meet, the plenary was stopped for Tuesday, April 22.
Not having a call, they add four weeks without legislative activities in Congress. The deputies held their last plenary session on March 27, two days after the Board of Directors announced the decision to suspend the salary increase that the deputies receive since February.
The deputies did not meet two weeks before the holiday of the Holy Week and the meeting of block leaders was rescheduled for tomorrow, which would imply an eventual session for Thursday, where the agenda is destined exclusively for interpellations.
The Congress this year has maintained a series of stumbling blocks since the beginning of the second year of the Legislature. Starting with the Division of the Will Block Opportunity and Solidarity (you), which occupies a position in the current parliamentary directive.
On that occasion, deputies of the VOS bench contrary to Karina Paz, first secretary of the Congress, faced a political and legal pulse with the Ramos directive, which after a few weeks of inactivity was possible to resume their functions.
Ramos had declared deputies independent of Jairo Flores, Orlando Blanco and José Chic for a letter sent by the Secretary General of you. The three deputies achieved a provisional protection to continue belonging to the block, legal protection that lost a few weeks ago as a result of a resolution of the Constitutional Court (CC).
Now the inactivity focuses on the apparent objection of some banks to want to suspend their salary increase, so the majority of blocks of block leaders did not integrate the latest calls made by Ramos.
On March 25, the Board of Directors announced at a press conference that it was going to suspend the salary increase. However, two days later, an opinion of the legal team of Congress stated that the increase can only be suspended by the Plenary of Congress, which has not gathered for practically a month.
Some deputies consulted, who prefer not to be summoned, estimate that the April payment would be arriving at the end of this week. Which would imply the third salary disbursement for deputies with an increase.
Currently the salary range for the deputies is from Q61Mil 300 to Q97 thousand 300 per month, according to the payroll records that the legislative body disseminates.
Pending actions
The Constitutional Court did not grant the provisional amparo to the former presidential excandidate Armando Castillo, who opposed the salary increase. Among the arguments of the Court, it emphasizes that the legislative agency has control over its finances.
According to the resolution, only the maximum authority of the Congress, that is, the plenary of deputies, can make the decision. But the congressmen have not met in three weeks and the president of the Congress did not summon the block leaders today what will imply four weeks of inactivity in the plenary.
Currently the presidency of the CC is in charge of Judge Leyla Lemus, who came to the position in 2021 by designation of the then president, Alejandro Giammattei.
On the agenda that the CC publishes on its website, a session had been scheduled for next Monday, April 28, in which 38 files had been included, including the latest legal actions against the increase in salary of the deputies. In the afternoon, the publication was eliminated.
Thus, in the next few days the Court must know the amparos promoted by the Social Organization Action Citizen, which questioned the minutes of the Board of Directors in which the deputies made the decision of the increase and in which the Financial Department of the Congress was ordered to make the disbursement.
Until now, the Constitutional Court has not stopped the salary increase that the deputies of the Congress were prescribed in November last year and was executed by the current Board of Directors of the Legislative Agency.