An extraordinary plenary session is scheduled for next Wednesday in the Supreme Court. Instance of the highest court in which the ministers will address their most recent controversy: the leak of a series of chats in which they report efforts by third parties to achieve the appointment of different judicial positions.
But although the publication of these messages, among which are conversations – even – of ministers of the Supreme Court, It is the most recent controversy of the highest court, the last year of the high echelons of the Judiciary has been marked, precisely, due to a series of questions in different areas. In recent months, the highest court has had, more than once, to come out and give explanations due to its actions, as well as those of its members.
The appointment to the extraordinary plenary session next Wednesday was made on Friday after a series of conversations between the former judge of the Santiago Court of Appeals became known, as published by Ciper, Juan Antonio Poblete – accused in the Surveyor Case – with different political and judicial representatives, in which he carried out efforts to obtain support for appointments of the Judicial Branch.
To the already stirred atmosphere that existed until last week in the corridors of the Supreme Court, was also added the publication during the weekend of Ciper, in which the efforts that it attempted to carry out were made known. Victor Gonzalo Migueles Oteízapartner of Minister Ángela Vivanco, during the appointment process of the new national prosecutor.
The investigative journalistic outlet reported that Migueles offered to the regional prosecutor of Aysén, and then candidate for national prosecutor, Carlos Palma, the payment of a postgraduate degree, in addition to a position in the North Center, in exchange for him being inclined to support another candidate. Management that, as he himself pointed out, Palma would not have liked, who sent a “screenshot” with the messages to the lawyer Luis Hermosilla to express his discontent.
Palma’s conversation with Migueles would be exposed, it is assumed, after the Prosecutor’s Office seized Hermosilla’s phone in the framework of the investigation of alleged bribe payments to officials of the Internal Revenue Service, putting the man in the spotlight once again. Power of attorney. The report published over the weekend generated reactions from Minister Vivanco herselfwho this Monday before the plenary session assured that his partner’s messages were due to a “excess of good faith, on the one hand, which unfortunately was not considered in the same way by the other.” But in addition to that, the lawyer pointed out that “there is a situation that involves a certain animosity towards the Judiciary and from that point of view I am very sorry for this.”
The content of lawyer Hermosilla’s phone is not the first time that it has raised questions about the Judiciary. This is how another of the situations that have marked the intense last year of the Supreme Court was when it was announced that the lawyer had taken steps to have the now Supreme Court minister, Jean Pierre Matus, reach the highest court, in addition to Antonio Ulloa to the Court of Appeals of Santiago. All of 2021.
Given this controversy, Minister Matus – in conversation with La Tercera – assured that “What is true and absolute is that I did not ask Mr. Hermosilla to make any arrangements in my name with senators or with any other person.”
But the appointment of the national prosecutor is also something that had previously marked the Supreme Court and is part of the controversies that have featured the ministers of the highest court during the last year.
And in December 2022, in the middle of the process of appointing the national prosecutor, a was revealed dinner organized by Minister Vivanco in her own home. That meal was attended by the candidate for national prosecutor and head of the Public Ministry in Aysén, Carlos Palma; the then president of the Supreme Court, Eduardo Fuentes; Minister Haroldo Brito and Minister María Cristina Gajardo.
Private meeting that generated questions in the ranks of the Judiciary because it was carried out in the middle of the process to name who would head the Public Ministry.
Some time later, Minister Vivanco herself would be questioned by different sectors, after the ruling of the highest court against the isapres, in June of last year, the minister of the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court, and then spokesperson for the institution, said which for many was a wrong interpretation of the ruling. “The surpluses that the Isapres have to return are to those who sued”he said in an interview with La Tercera.
Now that 2024 has arrived, in February specifically, the Judiciary had to face another situation that placed them in the sights of public opinion. This, after the Judicial Corporation made the million-dollar purchase of vehicles from the ministers of the Supreme Court.
On that occasion, and after the approval of the plenary session of the highest courtthe acquisition of 22 Lexus model ES300h automobiles was agreed to renew the fleet of vehicles that transports the court ministers and the judicial prosecutor. The purchase had a final cost for the luxurious hybrid cars of more than $1,253 million for the Judiciary.
After the outbreak of the case, and a series of accusations crossed within the organization, it was the same ministers of the Supreme Court who approved desisting from the purchase, which had even generated objections on the part of the Executive Branch.
An episode that also marked the last year of the Judiciary and that concluded with the resignation of the director of the Administrative Corporation of the Judiciary, Ricardo Guzmán, who left the direction of said organization, which he had headed since 2015.
But not only the chats with the lawyer Luis Hermosilla have generated questions towards the high echelons of the Judiciary. And also, during the investigation of the Topographer Case, the conversations between former judge Juan Antonio Poblete with the former Minister of Defense became known, Mario Desbordesto request support in favor of the now Minister of the Supreme Court, María Teresa Letelier.
In those chats, Poblete himself told Desbordes that Letelier was “his friend,” which is why he requested the support that the then minister of the Court of Appeals of San Miguel required to reach the highest court. Something that finally happened.
The conversations were revealed by Ciper and led to Minister Letelier herself, during last Monday’s plenary session, addressing the situation and pointing out to the rest of the ministers that none of them had reached that position. “by the work of the holy spirit”, referring to the system of election of positions in the Judiciary. The latter, according to the newspaper El Mercurio.
The discomfort experienced in the highest court has generated a kind of “earthquake” within the Judiciary that will end – say sources consulted – in a profound modification to the appointment system. That is -precisely- why the arguments were suspended this Wednesday in an extraordinary plenary session that must address, once again, one of the latest controversies that has the Judiciary in a complex scenario.
