GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemala’s newly seated Constitutional Court must work to regain public trust after years of decisions that appeared to protect alleged criminals, experts said Thursday.
The court, which returns four of its 10 magistrates, faces scrutiny over its independence and commitment to legal principles. Its ability to act as a democratic safeguard hinges on its upcoming rulings, particularly in high-profile corruption cases.
“What it has to do is recover the concept of a legal and technical court and not issue decisions tailored for anyone,” said Carlos Luna Villacorta, a former alternate magistrate on the court. “It must inspire more confidence above all with its most controversial decisions.”
The new court was completed Wednesday when President Bernardo Arévalo announced his selections of Gladys Annabella Morfín, a former solicitor general, and her alternate María Magdalena Jocholá, a Kaqchikel Maya lawyer and academic specializing in Indigenous issues. Four of the five principal magistrates will be women on the new court, which will be seated in April.
Guatemala’s Constitutional Court has been at the center of the country’s battle against corruption. It is the nation’s highest court; its decisions cannot be appealed. When former President Jimmy Morales terminated the mandate of an anti-corruption commission known as the CICIG in 2019, the Constitutional Court acted as a key democratic safeguard and ruled his decision unconstitutional.
But the court took a turn when new magistrates were elected in 2021. For example, the court in April 2024 upheld the release from prison of former President Otto Pérez Molina (2012-2015), who had been convicted in two separate cases of corruption.
In addition to Arévalo’s selections, the Supreme Court of Justice, Congress, University of San Carlos and the country’s bar association each selected a magistrate, as well as an alternate.
Political analyst Renzo Rosal said the new court appears to be “relatively balanced.”
“The court leans conservative, but nothing else can be expected of the (Constitutional Court),” since its essence is applying the Constitution, he said. “What we need is a group of magistrates who must stabilize (the court) and allow it to be an institution that halts the mistrust of justice, that serves the people and not the spurious spaces like now.”