Historic election in Honduras in the “multiparty and multicultural” Supreme Court

The appointment of the 15 magistrates of the highest court of Justice has also generated criticism from sectors that consider that meritocracy was not respected.

The Honduran Congress elected the magistrates that will make up the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ), in a vote that has been classified as historic because it put an end to the bipartisan nomination.

A total of 117 deputies voted in favor of the fifteen proposed magistrates, while nine voted against and one abstained. The list was presented by Congressman Mario Segura, from the Liberal Party.

After the election, the 15 togados were sworn in. Subsequently, the plenary session of the CSJ met and elected as the President of the Supreme Court to Rebeca Lizette Raquel Obandowho also took the oath of office.

With this decision, the highest court was made up of a female majority, since eight members are women and seven are men, one of whom belongs to the Garifuna ethnic group, an Afro-descendant community.

To achieve this majority vote, there was a prior agreement between the three benches of the ruling Libertad y Refundacion (Libre) party, the opposition Nacional, and the Liberal party. In the process there were tensions to reach the agreements before the indications of lack of independence and preponderance of political interests, reports El Heraldo.

The members of the Supreme Court are: Sonia Marlina Dubon, Roy Pineda Castro, Mario Rolando Diaz, Francisca Villela Zavala, Rubenia Galeano and Raquel Obando, from the Libre Party; Gaudy Bustillo, Anny Belinda Ochoa, Isbela Bustillo, Walter Miranda and Luis Fernando Padilla, from the National Party; and Odalys Najera, Milton Jimenez, Wagner Vallecillo and Nelson Danilo Mairena, for the Liberal Party.

With this parliamentary vote, the government party will not have a majority in the Supreme Court.

reactions

The Honduran president, Xiomara Castro, congratulated the Congress for the new CSJ, which she described as “multiparty, multicultural, with a gender perspective and transparency“.

For her part, the US ambassador in Tegucigalpa, Laura F. Dogu, stated in a tweet that “the hard work begins now for new magistrates” because it is expected “that apply the laws equally and for the benefit of the country“.

After this vote, some public figures have expressed their discontent. One of them is the spokesman for the Episcopal Conference of Honduras (CEH), Juan Angel Lopez, who affirmed in a trill that meritocracy was not respected in the process.

Another voice that expressed his discontent was that of deputy Tomas Ramirez, from the bench of the Salvadoran Party of Honduras (PSH), who despite having allied himself with Libre in the presidential elections, could not nominate any magistrate.

In a tweet, Ramirez asserted that a Court had been chosen “tailored to traditional parties and not in favor of the people”.

In its speech In Parliament, the Honduran people apologized for the election. “Today Honduras did not win, the political parties, the power groups, those who do not want an independent CSJ won,” he said.

A questioned Supreme

The previous Supreme Court, which served the period 2016-2023, has been pointed out in the media as being “little independent“because the Legislature and the Executive have exerted pressure on it to make certain decisions.

Within the Supreme Court, a scandal broke out over the alleged relationship of magistrates with several involved in embezzlement, mainly in the ‘Pandora Case’, although they were ordered to dismiss their cases.

However, already in 2012 irregularities were denounced in the Government of Porfirio Lobo (2010-2014), when Congress dismissed four magistrates of the Constitutional Chamber and appointed others to those positions in a process that, according to the Organization of United Nations (UN), did not comply with due process and was “unacceptable“. The president had accused the togados of not approving the laws that he presented to the Legislature.

In 2010, in the period of the CSJ corresponding to 2009-2016, four other judges were expelled by the plenary session of the highest court because they expressed their disagreement with the coup against former president Manuel Zelaya and one of them filed an appeal for amparo against his expatriation.