The Nomination Commission advanced to the decisive phase after integrating the final roster of six candidates for attorney general, in a process marked by last minute adjustments: although only nine candidates exceeded 75 points on the grading tablethree profiles close to that threshold were incorporated to complete the list.
The votes, carried out by voice and in order of qualification, also left out the current attorney general, Consuelo Porras, who did not obtain the necessary support to continue in the race.
The list brings together trajectories marked by experience in the justice system, controversial decisions and accusations that have generated public debate.
Among the six eligible, the following stand out: magistrates, prosecutors and operators with extensive experience in the sectorsome linked to high-impact resolutions and others with questions about their actions, which puts under scrutiny the final decision that now remains in the hands of the Executive.
Profiles of the six candidates
1) Beyla Xiomara Estrada Barrientos
13 votes
She has served as a judge of the Third Court of Appeals of the Criminal Branch. She was the wife of Alfredo Brito, Jimmy Morales’ Secretary of Communication.
Among the resolutions issued by the chamber it integrates, one from July 2018 stands out, when it confirmed the provisional closure of the case of former Defense Minister Williams Mansilla, accused of having authorized a liability bonus of Q50 thousand per month to Jimmy Morales.
He also benefited with house arrest to Samuel Morales and José Manuel Morales, brother and son of that former president, respectively, indicated in the Botín Property Registry case.
In 2018 he granted protection in favor of the Russian Igot Bitkov and annulled the resolution of Judge Éricka Aifán, who had sent him to trial.
In that same year he confirmed the alternative measures in favor of Gustavo Alejos. In March 2017, that court ordered the release on bail of former judge Blanca Stalling, in the IGSS-Pisa case.
In 2017, she was denounced by the anti-torture rapporteur Silvia Villalta for selling judicial resolutions in favor of inmates.
2) César Augusto Ávila Aparicio
10 votes
Current magistrate of the Mixed Regional Chamber of the Court of Appeals of Zacapa. He had previously held that position in the Chiquimula room.
He is the husband of Heidy Hichos Posadas, niece of former deputy Baudilio Hichos, who declared to this newspaper in 2014 that he had been an operator of judges and magistrates for the defunct Líder and Patriota parties.
In the Mixed Court of Chiquimula, Ávila Aparicio tried to recuse himself from hearing the pretrial against the then mayor of Ipala Esduin Javier Javier, accused of the murder of three people.
He worked in the First Economic Court of Guatemala as a service assistant, notifier and official.
He was legal advisor in the Ministry of Environment and in the Municipality of Chiquimula.
He has also been part of the board of directors of the Institute of Judges of the Court of Appeals, and in 2023 he was part of the list of 26 candidates for judges of the Supreme Court of Justice, a process in which he was included in the list of 40 candidates who obtained master’s degrees and postgraduate degrees in a short time.
3) Julio César Rivera Clavería
11 votes
He began his professional career as a detective in the Judicial Section of the State Attorney’s Office in 1976, according to the resume he presented to the candidate. In this file, as the last professional activity in the justice sector, advice is registered in the Ministry of the Interior until December 2020.
Since 2010, he has repeatedly run for the position of attorney general. In that process and in 2014, he joined the list of six candidates.
In the midst of his nominations, according to the Projusticia Movement, CICIG reports involved him with the Moreno Network, dedicated to smuggling and extortion, active since the 1980s, an accusation that he has described as absurd and irresponsible.
He was a presidential candidate for the Mi Familia party in 2023 and has held a series of public positions since the Vinicio Cerezo government, such as director of Prisons, vice minister of the Interior and director of the Treasury Guard.
One of the positions that put him in the public spotlight was that of secretary of the CSJ, from 1992 to 1994, when it was chaired by Juan José Rodil Peralta.
4) Gabriel Estuardo García Luna
10 votes
In 2022 he was a candidate for attorney general. He is currently a substitute member of the Judicial Disciplinary Board. During her presidency of that board, Judge Rocío Murillo was suspended for 20 days without pay, due to administrative misconduct, for failing to comply with a personal exhibition in the case of the death of 41 girls from the Hogar Seguro Virgen de la Asunción, in 2018.
A complaint was registered against him in the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office, from 2015 to 2018.
He presented a preliminary lawsuit together with Mildred Azucena Mejía Ábrego, against Víctor Leonel López del Valle, Justice of the Peace in Santa Catalina La Tinta, Alta Verapaz, which was admitted for processing by the CSJ.
He was a vocal magistrate of the Mixed Regional Chamber of the Court of Appeals of Cobán, Alta Verapaz. He entered the Judicial Branch in 1997, where he held positions of officer, secretary, justice of the peace, judge of First Instance and courtroom magistrate in the criminal area.
He has been a university professor in the bachelor’s and master’s degrees, at the Rafael Landívar University and at the School of Judicial Studies (EEJ). He has a master’s degree in Criminal Law from USAC.
5) Zoila Tatiana Morales Valdizón
10 votes
He worked in different prosecutor’s offices of the Public Ministry, in which he was in charge of several relevant cases, such as that of Postal Espionage in the Correos and Conexión Panamá building, in which the then president Alfonso Portillo was accused. According to the Projusticia Movement report, he received several threats due to this file.
She has practiced as a lawyer and notary for more than 35 years. In the MP he has worked for several years in the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.
He has also been a section prosecutor in the Offices of Crimes against Intellectual Property and Administrative Crimes.
In his resume, Morales Valdizón mentions the appointment of special prosecutor of the Transnational Criminal Investigation Unit.
Furthermore, he indicates that in 2003 he was a special prosecutor to hear the Government Case.
From December 2002 to April 2003 she was head of unit and special prosecutor to investigate the case against Manuel Antonio Callejas Callejas. He was also a special prosecutor in the Myrna Mack case in 2002.
6) Néctor Guilebaldo de León Ramírez
11 votes
He was part of the list of candidates for attorney general in 2022. He was presiding judge of the Fourth Chamber of Criminal Appeals since 2014, in extension of functions, until 2023, and he was a member of the plenary session of the CSJ since 2016 as a substitute.
In November 2020, while he was a substitute in the plenary session of the CSJ, he endorsed processing the pretrial against the judges of the CC Francisco de Mata Vela and Gloria Porras, presented by the lawyer Soazig Amanda Santizo, defender of the Bitkovs in the Migration case.
In October 2019, he joined the list presented by Judge Zonia de la Paz Santizo Corleto, for the election of representatives of Appeals judges, who would make up the nomination committee for candidates to the CSJ for the period 2019-2024.
He was the investigative judge of the pretrial against the Parlacen representative Gilmar Othmar Sánchez Herrera, of the FCN-Nación party, involved in the case of fraud in the Property Registry.
It recommended withdrawing his immunity, but the CSJ did not process the pretrial. Lawyer Alfonso Carrillo denounced him for malfeasance, for having released the CSJ judge, Blanca Stalling.
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