Liberty Advances (LLA) of President Javier Milei in the province of Buenos Aires will move forward with a request for impeachment against the Kirchnerist judge Marta Elba Pascual, after the magistrate ordered the provisional suspension, for 60 days, of the application of the new Juvenile Criminal Regime and the lowering of the age of criminal responsibility.
LLA in Buenos Aires questioned the ruling and stated that the judicial decision seeks to prevent the entry into force of a norm that was approved by the National Congress. In this context, the party is working on defining the mechanism to present the request to the Impeachment Secretariat.
The libertarian offensive is focused on the scope of the resolution issued by Pascual, head of the Juvenile Criminal Responsibility Court No. 2 of Lomas de Zamora and president of the Unique Juvenile Criminal Court of that judicial department.
The Kirchnerist judge Marta Elba Pascual
The Kirchnerist magistrate granted a preventive collective habeas corpus presented by the Federation Family Grande Hogar de Cristo, in favor of "adolescents deprived of their liberty".
The reprehensible suspension was justified by the lack of resources, infrastructure, accommodation places, and specialized personnel that, according to Pascual, would be necessary to incorporate 14 and 15-year-old offenders into the Buenos Aires penal system.
However, the measure represents an obstacle to the application of legislation approved by the Legislative Power and widely supported by society.
President Javier Milei
Criticism of the ruling
The ruling also received criticism from the Government of Javier Milei. Senator Patricia Bullrich, one of the main proponents of the reform, described the measure as characteristic of a “guaranteeing provincial justice”.
In turn, the Chief of Cabinet, Diego Santilli, pointed at the ultra-Kirchnerist governor Axel Kicillof for the situation generated after the judicial resolution.
The discussion also moved to the Buenos Aires Judicial Power itself. The prosecutor of the juvenile criminal jurisdiction of San Isidro, Andrés Zárate, stated that Pascual's resolution does not have general scope and anticipated that he will continue to apply the current legislation in his jurisdiction.
Zárate pointed out that a criminal judge can declare the unconstitutionality of a norm within a specific case, but questioned whether it could be rendered ineffective for the entire province. In that context, he was emphatic: “I will in no way comply with a ruling of that nature”.
The prosecutor also stated that the new legislation has already produced effects in judicial cases and mentioned the case of a convicted individual for the crime of Matías Urbani, whose situation was reviewed based on the principle of more lenient criminal law.
