He Ministry of Justice of the Nationheaded by Mariano Cúneo Libaronaannounced this Monday the closure of 81 Access to Justice Centers (CAJ) throughout the country, considering that they provided inefficiently the services of the Judiciary and other agencies. The decision is also the responsibility of the Undersecretary of Access to Justice, Candelaria Montenegro.
consulted by The New Morninghe regional coordinator of the Central Zone (Córdoba, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos and La Pampa) of the CAJ, Sergio Jobdefended this program that “plays a fundamental role in access to many rights, which are proclaimed, but to which an important sector of society does not have access.”
Job specified that in the nine CAJs that he is in charge of, there are 37 workers; and that 12 were fired two months ago. If the program is closed, 13 people from Córdoba would be left without their jobs.
“We are a place of consultation and primary care, in terms of support, and we intervene in an interdisciplinary manner. The teams have a lawyer, a psychologist, a social worker and an administrator“Job detailed.
In the statement from the Ministry of Justice in which the closure of the CAJ is announced, they are referred to as “politics boxes“that “inefficiently provided services typical of the judiciary and other agencies.”
In contrast, Job stressed that The CAJ work “in popular neighborhoods, in rural areas and in indigenous communities, where the presence of the State is scarce”; carrying out “community mediations, which often avoids the hyperjudicialization of any conflict.”
Job remarked that it is “a space of proximity, which is in the territory“and that often moves through itinerant operations.”Far from being closed, it should be multiplied“he stressed.
Finally, the official text states that the support of the CAJ is unjustifiable because “all citizens are guaranteed access to justice through the Judiciary, the Public Ministry, the Ombudsman and/or the Assistance Center for Victims of Crimes”.
“What the government published is a lie,” Sergio Job stated categorically. And he completed: “It is a lie that this policy is worth 8,000 million pesos and it is a lie that people have solved access to justice with the courts. That is a very restricted conception of what access to justice is, which is not limited to judicializing something. It involves accompanying and listening to communities and people who have very complicated situations and suffer abandonment by society and the State.. With the disappearance of the CAJ, thousands of citizens are left without a place to solve complex and serious problems.”
Finally, he added that with the removal of this program, “communities lose installed capacity and professionally and humanly trained personnel”; and that the State also loses “a public policy with 15 years of experience.”
“Provincial governments should take note of this.that the CAJ would have to defend, because we solved a lot of their problems,” he remarked and underlined that between 2020 and 2023, at the national level, the CAJ carried out more than 1,300,000 procedures.
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