20 days after taking office there are already sparks between Minister Cúneo Libarona and the Judiciary

20 days after being sworn in as Minister of Justice of the La Libertad Avanza government, Mariano Cúneo Libarona It already has its first detractors within the judicial field regarding some announced policies that it seeks to promote.

There is also no complete agreement on the candidate he has in his portfolio for the position of Attorney General of the Nation, a position of absolute relevance that six years ago, due to lack of agreement on policy, was not covered. As the regulations indicate, Eduardo Casal covers the position internally.

The Attorney General of the Nation is a position of utmost importance: it is the head of all prosecutors, also has intervention before the Supreme Court of Justice. The magnitude of his role is so great that to be appointed, in the Senate, a special majority, that is, two-thirds of the body must give their consent. The same requirement as a minister of the highest court.

It has been six years since Argentina has been able to appoint a full-time Attorney. Since Alejandra Gils Carbó resigned from office, she is facing MPF Eduardo Casal, who was second in hierarchy. He continued in this way, what the regulations establish.

A concept is always heard in the Attorney General’s Office: “the position is vacant, appoint someone, obtain the votes and thus Casal will cease to hold office.”

This idea responds -in essence- to the outgoing administration of Alberto Fernández and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who tried to reform the Law that determines the requirements for a person to take office in front of the PGN. They sought to eliminate the special majority, although the measure failed in Congress.

With the intention of placing someone who responds to the interests of the political space, they also denounced and sought to bring Eduardo Casal to a trial jury. Nothing prospered.

It is the power of the President of the Nation to choose a candidate for the Attorney General, but will only progress as long as the Senate will accompany with the number of hands that the regulations require. This is what did not happen with Judge Daniel Rafecas., whom Alberto Fernández had chosen. Was Cristina Kirchner herself was the one who prevented this process from moving forward.

The Rafecas document was withdrawn from the Senate two weeks ago by order of Cúneo Libarona. His candidate, suggested to President Milei, is Marcelo Lucini. “He is blameless, experienced and will lead very well,” said the minister in dialogue with Clarion.

The challenge will be for his document to obtain a special majority in the Senate. The announcement, for some within the Justice Department, could founder in Congress. But there are also many who expected a gesture “of reference and representation” regarding the candidate. That is: both judges and criminal prosecutors believed that It should be a prosecutor who takes charge of the Attorney General’s Office.

Once the first discrepancy with the criteria established by the Minister of Justice was exposed, it began to emerge more differences when it comes to knowing the route map that Cúneo Libarona seeks to trace.

The Attorney General’s Office does not share the statements made by the Minister of Justice regarding the implementation of the Accusatory System. Under this modality, prosecutors have greater preponderance; they assume the investigation from beginning to end. This gives greater speed to the process that is based on orality. The judge will always be the guarantor of everything that happens.

The Accusatory System promoted by former Cambiemos Minister Germán Garavano was launched at the federal level, only in Salta and Jujuy. It was done through the Bicameral Implementation Commission of Congress, which is not the power of the Executive Branch either. Yes, it is the responsibility of the same to provide resources so that the authorization of the Accuser is viable. There are also several provinces like Santa Fe that have this system implemented.

Cúneo Libarona in an interview with Clarion held: “You can advance in the Accusatory System without funds“. 30% of the Public Prosecutor’s Office is vacant, which hinders the progress of investigations in many cases. On this point, the person in charge of the Justice portfolio added: “I have prosecutors who are going to have tasks greater than those they have. Here, I cannot pretend, as they spoke, to create a judicial city, it would be illusory. Or as some prosecutor says, that we need a superstructure. I don’t have that, I’m going to make do with what I have and let it work.“.

The idea of ​​the current government is an immediate and simultaneous implementation of the Accusatory System throughout the Argentine territory.

“The initiative collides with reality“said a Clarion a renowned federal prosecutor who knows closely the implementation of this system. Without resources, there are many who consider that it is unfeasible to bring the entire system to this methodology.

The lack of personnel to be able to satisfactorily manage the investigations, guarantee the attention of the victims and the representation of the MPF in the hearings throughout the entire process, is one of the main shortcomings that stand out within the Justice Department.

It is not the only point that is pointed out when it comes to understanding the need for resources, the MPF understands, to move forward with the Accusation. They also detail the importance of building adaptations “to integrate work teams and guarantee space for care of victims and witnesses”, such as “the technological adaptation without which it is impossible to hold remote hearings and manage files in a completely digital manner in accordance to the provisions of the new code.”

Given the insistence of the Ministry of Justice for a simultaneous and immediate implementation, the MPF highlights: “Trying to implement the adversarial system in the current state implies a certain ignorance of the reality of federal jurisdictions, the structure of the adversarial system and the impact “which implies moving from an eminently written system to a system where issues are resolved in hearings and the victim takes on an important role.”

The change that this model of justice represents is radical regarding the way crimes are investigated and prosecuted. Prosecutors begin to have a central role in the investigations, which they are in charge of from the beginning, and most of their proposals are made in hearings before the judge and the defense.

Firstly, even within the Attorney General’s Office, consider that it is necessary beginning to fill vacant positions. When the LLA government was considered, 62 documents were withdrawn from the Senate, among them ten corresponded to representatives of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and fourteen members of the Public Ministry of Defense.

Despite these numbers, many more positions still need to be filled in the MPF. “To move towards the Accusation you inevitably need more designated prosecutors, it is the first resource you have to have,” he told Clarion a judicial source.

In essence, many members of the Public Prosecutor’s Office understand, for the implementation process to have some degree of success “it mainly requires a political decision, the will of the actors and the dialogue of the actors involved.”

But in addition, among the resources necessary to advance the implementation of the Accusation, are the funds that they demand “to be able to carry out the building, furniture and technology adaptations that the new system requires along with those of HR. In Salta and Jujuy the latter implied an increase of 40%“, explained judicial sources.

With a marked difference to the criterion adopted by the Minister of Justice, the Attorney General’s Office indicated that to measure what it means to advance with the implementation of the Accusatory System, it is enough to look at the two provinces of the North, “as valid and real evidence and not as a simple dogmatic declamation of those who have not had that experience. And, more than 4 years later, there is no better testimony of the results of the success of this implementation process than the public opinion of the prosecutors, judges and defenders of that jurisdiction.”

According to the first estimates within the Justice, the Minimum budget necessary for the implementation of the Accusation is around 5 million dollarsThat figure is the one that was turned over when it was launched – in 2019 – in Salta and Jujuy.

The details are: 50 million pesos for the Salta and Jujuy building that was renovated in 2022 for a figure updated by inflation. In computer infrastructure -desktop computers, notebooks, storage, etc.- for the MPF U$D 1,763,700, for the PJN U$D 3,105,000 and for the MPD U$D 450,000.

At the same time, it remains to be considered the investment in furniture and the renovations that had to be carried out in the buildings to adapt them to the logic of the new system.