The departure of María Consuelo Porras from the Public Ministry (MP) will take place on May 17, when Gabriel Garcia Luna assume as new attorney generala function that poses three great challenges.
This is what analysts specialized in security and justice consider, who identify three areas that García Luna needs to address as a priority.
President Bernardo Arévalo appointed a lawyer who has public acceptance and the vote of confidence from some social organizations as María Consuelo Porras’ successor.
The election that Arévalo announced on May 5 was carried out after evaluating a list of six candidates proposed to him by a nomination commission, whose decisions were the subject of no less than 14 protections before the Constitutional Court (CC). Some appeals are still pending resolution and were transferred to the competent judiciaries.
García Luna will assume an MP under international questioning, due to the apparent anti-democratic attitude that some foreign governments attributed to decisions by Consuelo Porras, which earned him sanctions and a ban on entering Europe.
During Porras’ administration, the MP distanced himself from the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), whose mandate was suspended in 2019. Since then, the allied institution became the target of criminal investigations.
By then, MP Porras was serving the first of his two terms, after having been appointed by President Jimmy Morales. In 2022, the then president Alejandro Giammattei reaffirmed her in office and during that period when the case called Semilla Corruption was promoted.
This MP investigation suggests electoral fraud that would have led Arévalo to the presidency. The direction of the case will be in the hands of García Luna when he takes over as attorney general on May 17.
For the team of analysts, the main challenges that García Luna faces as the new attorney general are three: recovering the public credibility of the MP; purge the prosecutor’s offices with trusted personnel; and evaluate all open cases.
Credibility
Alejandro Rodríguez from Impunity Watch; Andrea Rabanales from Be Just; and Francisco Quezada of the National Economic Research Center (Cien), agree that the task that García Luna will have will not be easy.
“The most important challenge will be to regain trust in the justice institutions. It is necessary for Guatemala to trust the MP again, unfortunately credibility has dropped to the ground,” Rodriguez said.
García Luna was the only candidate for attorney general elected unanimously in the nomination commission.
Its inclusion was supported by commissioners who showed affinity towards Patricia Gámez, president of the College of Lawyers and Notaries of Guatemala (Cang), who maintains an independent and honest profile, according to social sectors.
It also gathered the vote of another group of commissioners who identified with approaches promoted by Claudia Paredes, president of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ), whom organizations question an apparent friendship with some deputies from the Vamos bloc.
The support of both groups leads Rodríguez to think that it is possible to regain institutional trust in the MP.
“There is confidence and hope in the new prosecutor, that he not only has the will, but that he will have the tools to make these changes necessary to change the institution,” said.
Depuration
For Rabanales, it is important that during García Luna’s administration there is a purge in tax headquarters, which allows him to work with personnel he completely trusts.
“Consuelo Porras did what she wanted with the prosecutor’s offices, García Luna is going to find an unstructured MP, with middle managers similar to Consuelo Porras. This will not be an easy task, replacing prosecutors loyal to Consuelo Porras and whose transparency is compromised will be a complex process,” said.
Dimas Jimenéz, Leonor Morales Lazo, Cinthia Monterroso and Rafael Curruchiche are some of the prosecutors who occupy headquarters and whom social sectors identify as loyal to Consuelo Porras.
“He enters an institution with compromised prosecutors. He is aware of this, he was clear in the postulator when he said that the administrative functions were a challenge, and that he plans to analyze the administrative organization,” the analyst said.
Evaluate cases
Among the first challenges that García Luna has is also to identify, objectively, without bias, all the cases opened by the current MP administration and those that have not advanced that much in the justice system.
Arévalo and the political party that brought him to the presidency are the subjects of a criminal investigation, and opponents of his administration have filed complaints against officials of the current government.
For this reason, in Quezada’s opinion, the new attorney general needs to demonstrate independence with all social groups, so that his function is technical and not ideological.
“The first challenge is that the MP has to depoliticize. He has to distance himself from the two groups in controversy, bring his own proposal, otherwise it will cause unnecessary wear and tear,” said.
For the analyst, the evaluation of cases must also go hand in hand with improvements in criminal prosecution, so that citizens feel the effects of the MP’s work.
“You will have to prioritize crimes so that they are more effectively prosecuted, increase the effectiveness rate of investigation in homicides, that should be your priority,” said.
On this same topic, Rabanales said that although the MP must analyze and reconsider some cases, it is essential to remember that the final decision on any fiscal requirement rests with the judges and magistrates.