Argentina
Jorge Macri announced he will seek impeachment against Laura De Marinis over a ruling on the Juvenile Criminal Regime
The Buenos Aires City chief of government questioned the judge's decision, which declared an article of the new law unconstitutional and dismissed a 14-year-old teenager. Patricia Bullrich and other government-aligned figures also criticized the ruling.
The decision by Judge Laura De Marinis to declare unconstitutional in the city of Buenos Aires an article of the new Juvenile Criminal Regime and dismiss a 14-year-old teenager accused of attempted robbery triggered a strong political reaction. According to La Nación, the Buenos Aires City chief of government, Jorge Macri, confirmed that he will push for an impeachment request against the magistrate and that the local executive branch will appeal the ruling.
According to that outlet, Macri said judges must apply the law and not replace Congress with their rulings. He also said he had already instructed Buenos Aires City Justice Minister Gabino Tapia to move forward with the filing against De Marinis. In his public remarks, he also defended the new law’s alternatives to detention, such as probation, addiction treatment and professional monitoring.
The judicial ruling was issued in a case opened on September 10, after a group of teenagers tried to steal a cellphone from a 47-year-old man. The victim managed to escape and ask for help from an officer of the City Police. After the police intervention, the Public Prosecutor’s Office classified the incident as attempted robbery, according to both La Nación and Perfil.
Both outlets noted that De Marinis’s ruling is limited to that case file and does not in itself imply a general suspension of the regime in the City. In her ruling, the judge held that lowering the age of criminal responsibility was regressive and said the inclusion of children and adolescents in the criminal system must be the last resort. According to Perfil, she also questioned the State’s response through the criminal route to life trajectories marked by vulnerability and a lack of support.
The criticism did not stop at the Buenos Aires City government. According to La Nación, national senator Patricia Bullrich criticized the ruling on social media and said there are judges more concerned with protecting criminals than with delivering justice for victims. Also speaking out were National Security Minister Alejandra Monteoliva, lawmaker Alida Ferreyra, Buenos Aires City legislator Pablo Donati and lawmaker Martín Yeza, all of them with criticism of the magistrate and in defense of the new regime.
According to La Nación, there were also objections to the ruling in Buenos Aires courts. Judicial sources consulted by that newspaper indicated that, if the Public Prosecutor’s Office appeals, they believe the Chamber of Cassation and Appeals in Criminal, Juvenile Criminal, Misdemeanor and Offenses matters could overturn the first-instance decision.
This is also the second judicial ruling against the new law. Before that, the judge from Lomas de Zamora Marta Pascual had suspended the application of the regime in the province of Buenos Aires, although that measure was later overturned by the Chamber of Appeals and Guarantees in Criminal Matters of San Isidro, according to La Nación and Perfil.
Sources
About this note. Written by El Notero with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on what was published by the cited outlet. El Notero did not conduct its own reporting on this event.
