Paraguay
The ANR cannot directly expel Hernán Rivas because of his seat on the Board of Governors
According to the president of the party’s Conduct Tribunal, that body has no authority to judge or remove full members of the Board of Governors. Rivas’s case, after a first-instance conviction, would be left to the National Convention if the ruling is upheld.
The Conduct Tribunal of the Asociación Nacional Republicana will meet on Wednesday, August 30, and Thursday, October 1, to resolve four cases, ABC Color reported, citing its president, Gustavo Cazal. According to that explanation, in some cases the body has no jurisdiction because they involve members of the Board of Governors, so those matters are referred to the membership registry section.
In that context, the outlet noted that Hernán David Rivas Román, sentenced to 8 years in prison for acts linked to the use of a fake law degree in public institutions, cannot be directly expelled from the party registry by the Conduct Tribunal. The reason, again according to ABC Color, is that Rivas is a full member of the ANR Board of Governors for the 2023-2028 term.
The party statute establishes that judging the conduct of full members of the Board of Governors is an exclusive power of the National Convention, whether in ordinary or extraordinary session. Therefore, if Rivas’s conviction is upheld on appeal and later by the Supreme Court of Justice, his party status would not remain in the direct hands of the Conduct Tribunal.
ABC Color recalled that Rivas’s defense will appeal the ruling. It also indicated that, if the decision becomes final, the former senator will have to face an expulsion process as an ANR member, although because of his position within the party leadership that procedure would follow a different institutional path.
The outlet also compared the case with that of Óscar González Daher, who had been convicted in 2021 of illicit enrichment and false declaration, but died before the sentence became final or could be fully enforced.
In parallel, ABC Color mentioned the situation of Erico Galeano Segovia, sentenced to 13 years in prison for money laundering and criminal association in the A Ultranza Py case. Since his defense appealed to the Supreme Court of Justice, the conviction is not yet final. According to the same outlet, Galeano is not part of the Board of Governors, so if the sentence becomes final his case could indeed be handled by the Conduct Tribunal, even on its own initiative.
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 do its own reporting on this event.
