“The Ministry of Justice reports that, as a result of the audit that the portfolio has carried out since December, 81 Access to Justice Centers (CAJ) that inefficiently provided services of the Judicial Branch and other agencies will be closed.” This is how the official statement begins that the National government spread this week to argue for the elimination of more than 80 agencies that provided free legal advice to vulnerable sectors.
In the Cuyo region, for example, the number of offices amounts to six. One operates in San Luis, two in San Juan and the remaining three in Mendoza. It is still unknown if all of them will be eliminated or if some will remain operational. In our province, there are ten workers who currently work in the CAJs: four do so in San Rafael and the rest work in the offices located in Ciudad and Godoy Cruz. In addition, only the centers of Mendoza and San Rafael pay a rental fee, which pay 60 thousand and 45 thousand pesos, respectively.
What are CAJs?
The Access to Justice Centers are offices that provide free primary legal care services regarding issues related to social security, family, work and documentation, among others. According to the national government website, between 2020 and 2023, the same offices answered more than half a million queries throughout the country.
Photo: MDZ
Each office has an interdisciplinary team made up of lawyers, psychologists and administrators who, in addition to providing legal and psychological assistance to people who need it, provide support to users and carry out the necessary steps so that vulnerable sectors have access to the Justice.
The balance in the province
As he was able to find out MDZ, the most frequent demand that reaches the Mendoza CAJs is related to inconveniences in the payment of the child support fee and issues related to family conflicts. They also claim that they have assisted more than 125 people who were victims of sexual abuse.
On Wednesday, July 6, 2022, Agostina Trigo’s body appeared in a warehouse located in the department of San Martín, in the east of Mendoza. She had been missing for 72 hours. Ten days later, Diego Armando Caballero, who already had a complaint for simple sexual abuse, was arrested. One year later, MDZ reported that the femicide had confessed the authorship of the crime for which Justice would end up sentencing him to life imprisonment. That was one of the many cases in which CAJ professionals participated.
