Justice was subdued to the government of Rafael Correa

Ecuadornews:

In this series of five deliveries it will be reflected that both the Executive and Legislative functions, historically, controlled the Judicial function. The Correa government was no exception. 

The political power embodied in a single person had its end in 1748, when at the initiative of the French philosopher, Baron de Montesquieu the division of powers to govern was implemented. Thus the trilogy was born: Executive, Legislative and Judicial, today called State functions, with independence and autonomy. 

The judiciary was created to administer justice, achieve a balance in social coexistence, safeguarding the common good and collective peace, based on the provisions of the Constitution and the laws. Historically, this function has been subject to permanent harassment, be it on the part of the other functions of the State, or of the power groups, affirms the former president of the Supreme Court of Justice, Gustavo Medina. 

The jurist Bayardo Moreno, in one of his writings, recalls that Juan Montalvo in his fifth “Catilinaria” relates what happened to a cleric whom President Ignacio de Veintimilla persecuted accusing him of being a slanderer. 

The defendant after six months in prison obtained an acquittal from the judges of first and second instance and from the same Supreme Court, but Veintimilla did not comply with the court ruling. In order to put an end to the abuse and abuse of the judicial function, in the constitutional reforms of 1998 article 191 was incorporated. 

It says “The organs of the judicial function will be independent in the exercise of their duties and attributions. No function of the State may interfere in the affairs proper to those “. In addition, it defined the structure of the Judicial function that included four instances. 

However, everything was in good intentions, things did not work as expected, on the contrary, the situation worsened. The politician and jurist Andrés Páez recalls that on November 25 and December 8, 2004 the interference in the Judicial Power was repeated by the Legislative and Executive powers, which destroyed the institution of the country when it ceased, both to the Constitutional Court and to the Supreme Court of Justice. 

The return of authoritarianism 

This situation had repercussions on public opinion and a thorough judicial reform was raised on several occasions. In response to this clamor, former President Rafael Correa proposed reforms and concretized them in the Constitution of Montecristi on October 20, 2008. 

The structure of the Judicial function that was four instances became nine. Three are the main changes in relation to the 1998 Constitution: the structure of “government” of this function, the number of magistrates of the National Court of Justice and the form of election of the members. 

He created the Ministry of Justice, dependent on the Executive, through which he had links with the judicial function and other reforms. In one of his writings in 2013, jurist Julio César Trujillo states that reforms through a referendum and with the name of amendments introduced substantial changes in the Constitution. 

He indicates that these allowed the Executive to have control of the judicial function through the Council of the Judiciary, the Prosecutor’s Office, and the National Court of Justice. In this regard, the political and social leader, Óscar Ayerve, maintains that based on these facts, the government manipulated the Judicial function to achieve control, designate its relatives and even influence the judgments. 

Adds that judges and prosecutors put by the previous regime persecuted innocents, for the fact of being opponents. He hopes that the designation of authorities of the justice agencies can influence a change. (I)

Source: https://www.eltelegrafo.com.ec/noticias/judicial/12/injerencia-justicia-correismo