The former candidate for deputy for the UCN parties and the Value-Unionist coalition Sergio Ayala Acevedo is the general secretary of the Presidency of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ), a position held by Judge Teódulo Ildefonso Cifuentes Maldonado since last November.
Ayala was one of the three candidates for deputies for the union of national change (UCN) who accompanied Mario Estrada in his 2019 presidential campaign, an aspiration that was interrupted when the founder of the party was arrested in the United States for conspiracy for cocaine traffic.
In the 2019 campaign, Ayala looked for a Diputación by Chimaltenango, box 2, but did not get the necessary votes. The other two candidates for deputies, Juan Luis and José Manuel Sosa Cordón, did not achieve it either, but linked companies received more than Q100 million in public supply during the government of Alejandro Giammattei, according to investigations of the missing newspaper THE PERIÓTICO.
For the next campaign, in 2023, Ayala nominated as a candidate for deputy for Quiché with the value-unionist coalition, and did not reach a seat.
Turned out the effervescence of political campaigns, Ayala went unnoticed until last February, when his name was heard again in the public space, now as the Secretary of the Presidency of the Judicial Organization (OJ) and signatory of the circular that informs workers about the license so that they can attend the voting of the Bar Association and Notaries (CANG).
An interview with Ayala was sought, but for reasons of agenda he only agreed to answer a questionnaire that was sent to him with the mediation of the OJ communication unit. In his responses, the secretary pointed out that his political participation is protected in the constitutional right to opt for public office and participate in political activities.
“It is not an impediment”
“It is essential to specify that my designation in the second box – UCN – to opt for a position of popular election was the result of an internal process of the party at the departmental level, through the bases, and not by a person specifically. In a democratic system, political participation is a legitimate way of public service and, in no case, represents an impediment to perform future functions within the State, ”said Ayala.
In January, the Secretary General of the Presidency of the OJ received income for Q75 thousand 322, in accordance with ex officio public information records. The monthly salary of the position is Q46 thousand 700, but in January a fortnight of December and the current month was paid, according to the OJ. The secretary also has the right to representation expenses, which in January were Q19 thousand 354.84.
The appointment of Ayala lifts alerts in two dimensions, at the discretion of the political scientist Renzo Rosal. “We all have the right to opt for public office, but it is striking that it has been a candidate for a party – UCN – that was evidently dominated, from who was the general secretary and owner of the party to many other candidacies, for hosting and representing interests of people linked to irregular and criminal actions,” he said.
“That he has been a candidate, not only militant of the party, he should light at least one yellow light,” Rosal emphasized.
Although it does not have to do directly with the judicial resolutions “that a person with an organic link of not many years ago with that party organization and now is an official of the judicial body can generate certain incentives – permisos or others – speaks of the porosity of the system,” said the political scientist.
From the Secretariat of the Presidency of the OJ, Ayala has access to the most important matters of Justice in Guatemala and has been seen accompanying Cifuentes in various public activities, such as the presentation of accountability reports of the Superintendence of Tax Administration, at the end of January.
Regarding his appointment in the Judiciary, Ayala said: I consider “important to clarify that my current function is administrative, without any interference in jurisdictional decisions. In that sense, there is no conflict of interest, since judicial resolutions are issued with total independence and under the principles of legality and impartiality. ”
“The current regulations establish a clear separation between the administration of the justice system and the exercise of the jurisdictional function, which guarantees transparency and objectivity in the performance of my responsibilities,” he said.
The political scientist Marielos Chang said: “If we aspire to have independent and impartial justice, I see incompatibility” with which the secretary has belonged to two political parties. “What happens in these cases? How does the president of the CSJ guarantee that there will be no preference? Instead of strengthening trust in the justice system, these designations cause otherwise. The conversation to improve the judicial career and ensure that the pressures by political parties are reduced is pending, but with these designations it becomes more urgent, ”he noted.
The president of the Court also responded electronically and defended that the designation of key officials, such as Ayala, is a process based on merit, the professional career for the administrative position, complying with the requirements contemplated in each of the existing professional profiles and what is established by law.
Ayala, as a lawyer and notary profession, served in 2023 as an advisor to the Human Resources Department of the Legislative Agency and in 2024 he was hired as an advisor to the Legislative Directorate.
For both functions he received income for Q349 thousand 345, according to the Guatecompras portal. These functions were assumed “by virtue of their academic training and work experience,” said Ayala. He was asked for a copy of his curriculum to know his career, but no response was obtained.
Brief step by real estate
In 2011, Ayala was a legal representative of Cykyeres, a corporation dedicated to real estate business and led by airport facilities. The Comptroller General of Accounts detected several irregularities in the lease contracts of Cykyers and, according to the Communication Unit, the audit is still ongoing.
The General Directorate of Civil Aeronautics reported that Cykyeres no longer has any current lease contract, since they were revoked in advance for breach in the payment of bonds. According to information available in public records, the contracts were due to the lease of hangars and premises in the air terminal.
Cykyers was constituted in April 2011 under the procurement of notary José Arenales Farner. Arenales is the key notary of corporations that are part of the tax fraud network that the SAT revealed in the 2024 known as B410 case.
In an interview with Public Square, Arenales delegates the responsibility for the creation of societies in his ex -assistant David Barrera, linked to the criminal case for money laundering in case B410.
Arenales explained that, due to the demand for companies, it was used as founding partners for the firm’s personnel, such as Oswaldo Enrique Balaña Portillo. Precisely, Balaña is the founder of Cykyeres, along with Héctor Rolando Pérez Marroquín.
Balaña is also a legal representative of Canyon Group, the company that in 2016 tried to participate in the auction to buy the avocados harvest of the farm of former president Otto Pérez Molina, in the process of domain extinction.
The business was frustrated when it was known that Canyon Group had links with the former presidential binomial and with the state co -optation case. Cykye’s current legal representation corresponds to David André Figueroa Gonzalez.
Ayala tells that his passage through the corporation Cykyers “was three months, so there is no greater theme to add”