In the last few hours, authorities from the Usac and the university opposition group Usac-Dire have received notifications about legal actions rejected in the framework of the election of the university rector.
Last April, after a questioned process, the University of San Carlos de Guatemala (Usac) declared Walter Mazariegos the winner of the rector election, to hold the position for the next four years.
The election of the rector gave rise to the presentation of several legal actions before courts and Appeals chambers. Some even escalated to the Constitutional Court (CC); However, the majority have already been rejected in favor of Mazariegos.
On May 25, the CC agreed in full to reject about 15 legal actions that questioned the previous phases of the rector election, among them, the integration of the electoral bodies and the election processes in the different academic units.
Although three of the five magistrates of the CC agreed to deny the petitions, the resolutions were pending signature, and it was not until a week later when the Presidency of the Court included the files for signature, so the process progressed until the interested parties were notified.
Last Tuesday, two protections were notified and, in the constitutional session this Wednesday, a second package of legal resources was signed, for a total of 10 files that are now ready to be notified.
Likewise, the authorities of the Usac and the Usac-Dire group reported that they were notified of another package of legal actions that, like the previous ones, were rejected.
These are six amparos that were in the Sixth Administrative Litigation Chamber and that, according to the notifications sent to the parties, were suspended by the magistrates.
The new rector of the USAC must take office on July 1. In the event that Walter Mazariegos manages to resolve all the pending processes, he could continue leading the university.
Pending signatures
Constitutional sources who prefer not to be identified detailed that the two draft resolutions agreed on June 1 are still pending to be scheduled for signature.
The reason, according to the source, is that two judges announced that they would present observations on the draft resolutions: Anabella Morfín, president of the Court, and Astrid Lemus, representative of the College of Lawyers and Notaries of Guatemala (Cang). The CC was asked for a position on the situation, but no response was obtained.
Those who supported the draft resolutions were the titular magistrates Roberto Molina Barreto, Dina Ochoa and Julia Rivera. These last two were the speakers of the cases that clear the legal path for Walter Mazariegos.
The documents pending signature would render void a provisional protection and another definitively granted, which stopped the election of the rector of the USAC due to apparent anomalies in the process.
Judge Rivera was the rapporteur for one of the cases despite an apparent conflict of interest, because she came to the constitutional bench by appointment of the Higher University Council (CSU), chaired by Mazariegos.