The dream of the "Unión" case

It dismantled, as the Civil Guard explained in a statement at the time, "the most important organized plot in Lanzarote." It forced the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office to intervene, which took over the case due to "the ...

April 15 2011 (17:24 WEST)

It dismantled, as the Civil Guard explained in a statement at the time, "the most important organized plot in Lanzarote." It forced the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office to intervene, which took over the case due to "the ...

It dismantled, as the Civil Guard explained in a statement at the time, "the most important organized plot in Lanzarote." It forced the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office to intervene, which took over the case due to "the organization, complexity, and significance" of the investigated events. It obtained compelling evidence and even confessions from several of the detainees, who even claimed that the collection of illegal commissions was "a custom."

However, while the Central Operational Unit of the Civil Guard, the Prosecutor's Office, and the judge in charge of the case were multiplying their efforts given the magnitude that the case was taking, the opposite has happened from other spheres.

A thousand explanations and a thousand theories can be sought, but whatever the underlying reason, it is unacceptable that a case, especially of this magnitude, remains without a judge for four months, while the judicial bodies and political institutions with powers in the matter pass the buck and delay a decision that should have been adopted immediately.

In this scenario, it is inevitable that suspicions and conjectures about the underlying motives are fueled. But if it really is just "bureaucracy," it is equally unforgivable. How can it take almost three months to respond to a request to extend a service commission that had already been granted?

How can the one in force be allowed to expire without giving an immediate solution, either by extending the commission or assigning another judge to the case? And what is worse, how can the request finally be accepted, but with a resolution that now has to be redone because it had not been drafted correctly?

In view of what is happening, it would seem that all the instances involved, including the General Council of the Judiciary, the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of the Presidency and Justice of the Government of the Canary Islands, are facing an unprecedented request. However, the reality is that there are precedents of other magistrates who have continued the investigation of cases on a service commission, even in the archipelago. Is it so difficult then to give a quick and definitive answer?

That the Government of the Canary Islands and the central government are passing the buck because neither of them wants to bear the costs of the allowances that this service commission will entail borders on the ridiculous, but the truth is that this has been the last obstacle, and the one that has forced the CGPJ to rewrite its resolution to clarify this aspect. But for this last, we have been waiting for more than two months, and it has not yet been resolved.

Evidently, administering Justice costs money. Judges, prosecutors, judicial secretaries, infrastructures are necessary... But at this point, it should be crystal clear that a state cannot function without this basic pillar. Are they really telling us that for the price of some allowances, an investigation of the magnitude of the "Unión" case is being delayed?

To make matters worse, it should be added that in that last extension that was granted, and that has not yet come into force, it was also pointed out that only a period of three more months would be given, and that it would be "non-extendable." Something absurd in itself, because it is more than evident that it will be impossible to finish the investigation in that time, especially considering the new fronts that were opened with Operation "Jable," and also with the latest arrests in November 2010, a month before Romero Pamparacuatro was "removed" from the case.

Is it not contradictory to accept that the service commission be extended, but not the time necessary to finish the investigation, knowing that another judge will have to take over the case in the end? Or do they intend to finish the investigation of a case of this magnitude in three months, when they have already spent more than four just to complete the simple bureaucratic procedure to grant that extension?

The Unión case made many citizens dream, who saw how the corruption that has prevailed on the island for years began to be prosecuted forcefully. However, time has made many begin to think that it really was a dream, a mirage. Let it be forgotten that there is evidence, confessions, and many threads to continue pulling. They have managed to "turn off" the light that the "Unión" case brought.

And that, unfortunately, is a double problem. Because society needs to believe in its institutions again, and especially needs to believe in Justice. In an independent Justice, and in an agile Justice.

However, the politicians themselves often slow down, at least the latter, by not allocating the necessary means. By having the courts overloaded with work. By not providing more resources to an essential pillar of society. And if we add to this the mess in which they have bogged down the "Unión" case, passing from one office to another, they certainly achieve everything but gaining the trust of society.

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