In a context of tension for political control in the Legislative, the Constitutional Court (CC) ordered that Congress resume the plenary session of April 29, which was lifted by the president of the Board of Directors, Nery Ramos, stating that there was no quorum and then, at a conference, I recognized that there were no adequate conditions to continue.
On that occasion, the session was finished moments after the agenda of the day was approved, after there were not two motions proposed by the ruling and its allies to address the repeal of the salary increase of the deputies. The session was marked by several incidents between deputies, which even reached the blows, as was the case with the Parliamentary Parliamentarians of León and Elena Motta.
Before the measure of Ramos, the opposition parliamentarians Álvaro Arzú, Elmer Josué Palencia, Felipe Alejos, Nadia Lorena de León Torres, Carlos Enrique López Girón, Rodrigo Pellecer, Allan Rodríguez and José Inés Castillo Martínez presented an amparo in the CC, which resolved in his favor this Monday.
“The reproached authority is ordered: a) That, in the exercise of its powers, as regulated by article 18 of the Organic Law of the Legislative Agency, summon the deputies to the Congress of the Republic to the resumption of the ninth ninth (19th) additional ordinary session of that state agency, which must be carried out on Tuesday, May six of this year, at 2:00 p.m. It broke the procedure in the verification of the quorum, “is indicated in the resolutive act.
He also emphasizes that the amparo was promoted against acts executed “by the president of the legislative personally.” However, who appeared to render the circumstantial report was another person, sent as a judicial president of the Congress, that is, “to represent said agency and not to the private official.”
“It is noted that said president has no power to represent the president of the Board of Directors of the Congress for personal acts executed by said official, so the circumstantial report is not considered,” the Court said.
The president of the Congress, Nery Ramos, did not agree with the constitutional criteria and said that he was complied with and the report was presented last Sunday, at 9 pm, in which it was reported that the plenary took place with all the processes and procedures established in the law.
“It is the power of the president of Congress. The reason was the lack of quorum. Some deputies say there were enough deputies, but what counts is assistance,” he said.
Disagreements
For some, the power struggle focuses around the representation before the Monetary Board, being considered a strategic position that offers direct influence on key decisions on economic and financial matters of the country, such as the general budget of the nation.
The deputy of the Cabal Party, Luis Aguirre, says that the objectives of the opposition are to punish his bench for insisting on the repeal of the salary of the deputies and because they want to return to handle the budget of the way in which Rodriguez was handled before. In his 2020-2022 period, Rodríguez was indicated not to transparent the use of public resources and not knowing how to handle the political affairs of Congress.
“They want the Monetary Board to change the Vice Presidency of the Guatemalan Social Security Institute and continue the same as before and not allow changes there,” Aguirre said.
The parliamentarian Sonia Gutiérrez says that parliamentarians contrary to the ruling party seek to “demonstrate political force occupying key positions that allow them to achieve their objectives of controlling and having political domain.”
According to Deputy Julio Héctor Estrada, of the Cabal Party, the opposition only seeks “quotas of interest” and, in the case of the Finance Commission, which he presides, has been handled “strictly and attached to transparency.”
“We are seeing that it is not an attack against Cabal, because it has been an independent bench, but with that excuse they make an attack against the Executive and the governance, and they will want to have more entrusted to the Executive,” he said.
Reconfiguration
For the deputy contrary to the ruling party, Inés Castillo, what happens in Congress is a “reconfiguration of power”, although he clarified that at no time he seeks to withdraw from the position the president of the Congress, Nery Ramos, nor is it intended to cause a “coup d’etat”, as, according to him, they have said parliamentarians of the ruling party.
“It is a reconfiguration of power, it is a natural dynamic, as can happen here and anywhere in the world, and it happens when someone with a certain position does not fulfill their functions,” he said.
He added: “This is like football, when it is decided to change the team’s captain because the rest of the team no longer wants, there will always be people who will not agree with that change.”
The parliamentarian indicated that only the mandate of the CC is sought to occupy the first Secretariat of the Board of Directors.
The issue of salary increase does not appear in the legislative agendas of the next sessions, nor is it in the opposition proposal. Allan Rodríguez on the subject said that “it is preferable that the deputies have a decent salary that avoids that they are subject to organized crime, that they offer money under the table or that it comes from drug trafficking.”
“What is intended with this – a salary auction – is to fight against the co -optation of the deputies and the commissions,” he said.