The judge of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), Irma Palencia, used social networks to publish a message in which she points out that the actions and criminal persecution against the electoral magistrates by the Public Ministry (MP) and a group of characters who do not They accept that they were defeated at the polls, they seek to delegitimize the 2023 General Elections and render the electoral results null and void, without caring about the time that has passed.
In a message published on her social networks on February 26, Judge Palencia, who was president of the TSE, points out details of the electoral process and the criminal prosecution that seeks to deprive four judges of that institution of their freedom.
“Where there is little justice, it is a danger to be right,” the magistrate, who is enjoying a vacation period, heads the publication.
In the text, the magistrate recalls that in December 2023 a work license was requested, after which the TSE’s normal general vacations each December came and subsequently the pending vacations were added.
“Since the filing of the spurious pretrial against 4 TSE Magistrates, its arbitrary approval by the plenary session of deputies of the previous Congress of the Republic in a marathon session, on 11/30/23 (last day of parliamentary sessions of the year), which concluded at 11:57 pm, with questions and accusations of economic perks in exchange for those votes, public complaints that it is unknown if they exist or have been investigated accordingly,” the judge wrote.
Prensa Libre published that on November 30, 2023, the Congress of the Republic withdrew the immunity of four TSE judges after the legislature received on November 29 the detailed report that recommended withdrawing the officials’ immunity, so in the session were put to a vote by the plenary session less than an hour before the end of the regular session period.
The report was based solely on judges Irma Palencia, Gabriel Aguilera, Rafael Rojas and Mynor Franco, since the president of the TSE and the substitute judges obtained provisional protection that stopped the pre-trial proceedings.
The magistrates are accused of having incurred illegalities in the purchase of the computer system for the Transmission of Preliminary Electoral Results (TREP), for a cost of Q148 million.
Palencia expressed that the countless amparo actions that during this express processing (8 days) were presented before the Constitutional Court (CC) still lack a resolution, but the investigations began in a criminal court.
“Before the 12th Criminal Court of First Instance that hears the process, since January 10, 2024, in brief, we were requested to appear voluntarily and spontaneously, with the purpose of clarifying the “legal situation” derived from the pretrial and thus making ourselves available to the jurisdictional body. comptroller, without to date a date having been resolved and scheduled for that purpose,” Palencia wrote.
The magistrate adds that with surprise they saw that at four hours the next day – January 11 – the MP processed arrest warrants against the 4 magistrates, in a court on duty and not before the natural judge.
It affirms that the TSE carried out the 2023 general elections with integrity and guaranteed the electoral results “that the more than 5 million citizens decided at the polls, and that 125 thousand volunteer citizens guarded in an exemplary manner with immeasurable civility, through the Electoral Boards.”
They want to delegitimize the elections
In her writing, Judge Palencia says that despite “spurious raids, harassment, monitoring, threats, media campaigns of discredit, misinformation, dignity, honor, honor, legal and political persecution, the fierce instrumentalization continues with “the appearance of legality.” “of actions -without respite- of the MP and a group of characters who do not accept that they were defeated at the polls.”
He adds that these people persist in seeking, at all costs, “to deprive the judges of their freedom, to confirm their coup thesis, with the intention that, regardless of the time that has passed, the elections are delegitimized and with the judicialization of politics, annul the electoral results.”
She feels harassed
“As implausible as it may seem, and that would be the piece that justifies the unjustifiable, the conspiracy and persecution of which I am a victim, incredible and unacceptable after the transcendental role that she played and being a magistrate of the highest electoral body, I find myself in a situation of defenselessness “, forgotten, relegated and made invisible, harassed, regardless of the rank and status that we have represented for the country, without giving it the value and importance it deserves and what this situation, if it persists, can represent,” adds the judge in her writing.
It says that “it is imminent to have guarantees in conditions worthy of justice and security to return to the country to clarify before the justice system what exists against it, and at the same time to exercise without delay in conditions of dignity and freedom the position of magistrate, without any limitation.”
It also refers to what the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights indicated in the precautionary measures that it was granted in this case on January 13.
“To those who represent public institutions and the corresponding authorities, Civil Society organizations, the country’s economic and academic sector and all Guatemalan citizens, I urge you to exercise your empathy and solidarity, with the same gallantry that you had when it was being obstructed. and the takeover of the new authorities was in danger, and where at the same time the electoral results (whatever they were) were guaranteed and sustained by the highest electoral body, even at the cost of life, integrity, security, dignity and freedom, as well like that of the family, and this is the incredibly high price that is paid today,” wrote Judge Palencia.
He asked that they be supported in giving them the opportunity to be able to present themselves voluntarily immediately, as has been requested and reiterated before the competent jurisdictional bodies, with guarantees, in decent conditions, of security and freedom, in order to clarify the “spurious thesis manufactured that the MP manages and that it instrumentalizes.”
He adds that this thesis continues to be a conspiratorial objective from which the coup plotters do not give up and that it is a kind of revenge or revenge against the TSE magistrates for having sustained the electoral results, democracy and with it the stability of the country and that therefore That is why the political persecution against the aforementioned magistrates must stop.
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