Paraguay
Cartismo's defense of Hernán Rivas was thrown off course after his conviction
Honor Colorado figures, led by Santiago Peña, publicly backed the then senator during the controversy over his law degree. The ruling that sentenced him to eight years in prison closed the case with a strong institutional impact.
The eight-year prison sentence against former cartista senator Hernán Rivas revived the public defense that Honor Colorado had mounted during the controversy over his disputed law degree, according to ABC Color.
According to that outlet, President Santiago Peña was one of Rivas’s main backers. In several interviews, he presented him as a colleague and a close friend, linked to his political project since his first presidential bid in 2017. In response to criticism over the case, he also said he did not feel ashamed of the situation and anticipated that he would not push for political sanctions against the then lawmaker.
ABC Color noted that, as the investigations advanced, the cartista bloc sought to remove the case from the political arena, downplayed the criticism and attributed part of it to attacks from sectors of the press. In that vein, Peña spoke of an alleged selective treatment of the scandal and called for the same standard to be applied to government supporters and opponents alike.
Still according to ABC Color, the president also insisted that the debate over the validity of the degree should be resolved in court, not in the Executive Branch or the Legislature. Under that criterion, he asked judges to act and stressed that Rivas had temporarily stepped away from some duties to face his judicial situation.
As the case progressed, the official line also shifted to focus on the problem of fake degrees and unaccredited programs. From the Executive Branch, ABC Color reported, attention was directed at educational oversight bodies and citizens were urged to verify the accreditation of institutions before beginning their studies.
The ruling by the Trial Court marked a break with that political backing. The judges found the documents submitted by Rivas to be false and concluded that this was not a minor offense because of its institutional consequences. The case took on particular gravity because of the position he held in the Council of Magistrates’ Impeachment Jury, an institution he even came to preside over and from which he took part in proceedings involving judges, prosecutors and public defenders across the country.
Sources
About this note. Written by El Notero with assistance from artificial intelligence, based on what was published by the cited outlet. El Notero did not do its own reporting on this event.
