A scandal engulfed the Judiciary of La Rioja this Wednesday when a video came to light of the president of the Fourth Chamber of Civil and Commercial Matters and of Mines of La Rioja asking for a bribe of 8 million pesos from a merchant to expedite the processing of an inheritance that had been delayed. Norma Abate de Mazzucchelli is the judge, 78 years old, who has been in the provincial courts for more than 30 years.
Manuela Saavedra, who was processing the succession of an uncle, filed the criminal complaint. The Superior Court of Justice made an extraordinary agreement and decided to preventively suspend her from office and sent the case to the Judicial Council. With such a stir, the chambermaid presented her resignation, but it is the local Chamber of Deputies that must decide whether she accepts or rejects it. For now, the governor of the province, Ricardo Quintela, is pushing for her to be rejected and impeached.
“Irrefutable facts”
“It is a clear situation, the facts are irrefutable,” he told Page 12Gabriela Asís, the president of the Superior Court, in reference to what was seen in the hidden camera, which was broadcast by the program Telenight There Manuela said that she had been involved in the succession process for four years for her uncle Norberto Arias, whose heirs were nephews and a sister. She was struck by the fact that he was devoted to her and she went to see Abate de Mazzuchelli to complain to him. The magistrate told her that since she had met her uncle she was going to make an exception, always according to what was heard in the audio. She began to complain about what they paid her: “They pay us a shitty salary. Less than a million pesos.”
“Don’t forget about me,” Manuela said she said goodbye. And in the afternoon she showed up at her business, a bookstore, she pulled him away from her and told her she could have everything resolved but that “it had a cost.” A day later, she reviews in her report, she was sent for by a woman who works with her. In the image you can see Abate’s face with messy white hair and a crucifix in the background. She is heard saying that the fees for the estate lawyer were going to be hers. She writes down a number in a notebook and shows it to him. “Eight?” asks Manuela. “Give me this,” is the response. “I don’t understand it,” she replies. “The same as them, the lawyers, who have not done any work,” says the now suspended judge.
When Manuela tells him that she couldn’t pay, that she just needed the inheritance funds, she says that she crossed out and put a five. She insists that she can’t pay. “Look Manuela, who did everything, it wasn’t the lawyers here. If you don’t want to or can’t, don’t do it. This is not done out of obligation, it’s done out of recognition. It’s simple, here no one is going to put a gun in your chest “, is heard at the end of the dialogue.
The great impact
It turns out that Abate de Mazzucchelli was until now the vice president of the Association of Women Judges of Argentina. The president, Susana Medina, publicly announced that the board of directors had unanimously decided to “preventively suspend her from her position and as a partner of the entity, while the internal disciplinary summary is being processed.”
Thus, the chambermaid has a summary ordered by the Rioja high court, another in the Association, and a criminal case. Her suspension from her position as judge is without pay. This Friday the Chamber of Deputies will meet to evaluate whether or not it accepts her resignation. The governor asks no, that he be impeached. The Judicial Council, already notified, must be in charge of activating it.
In the Rioja courts they say that there were previous rumors about other similar situations regarding this judge that were not reported. There are those who point out that there is a political background to changing judges or intervening in justice, although in this case everything is recorded and filmed. A judge asking for a bribe is what usually runs through the social imagination as a myth but in some cases it has been proven to be reality, and it is not known how many are left out of complaint or dissemination.
Quintela wrote in his “X” account that they are “unacceptable and absolutely serious facts.” “Judge Abate de Mazzuchelli, accused of asking for bribes to resolve different cases, is attacking the trust of the people of La Rioja in Justice; that is why I requested the removal of her position and the investigation of this situation. Some time ago I have already promoted and spoken on the limit of the periodicity of judges to avoid, among other things, vices in the correct actions that Justice must have.” She pointed out that this issue is being discussed for the provincial constitutional reform.
