It is now clear that President Néstor Kirchner did not miscalculate in his campaign to shake up the supreme court. After making a show of willingness to fight to the bitter end, court president Julio Nazareno submitted his resignation on 27 June.
He did so just before the impeachment commission of the chamber of deputies took a vote on the 22-charge accusation sheet that was to be the basis for his impeachment. His letter of resignation laconically cited 'personal' reasons, but a member of his team of lawyers, Gregorio Badeni, said he had decided to go because he was being denied the right to defend himself.
Political analysts and commentators were almost unanimous in assessing that this episode has greatly strengthened Kirchner -though some critical jurists have argued that his methods had not done much for the respect due to the main institutions of the state).
Kirchner clearly saw the outcome as an endorsement of his approach. 'They had told us,' he said, 'that it was impossible to buck the theory of negotiated compromise, that we had to reach a consensus with the established power. That was the worst that could have happened, which is why we have bet strongly on change.'
The final verdict will have to await the appointment of Nazareno's successor. Kirchner (who as governor of Santa Cruz 'stacked' the provincial supreme court much as former President Carlos Menem did at the federal level) has promised to introduce a selection process of 'unprecedented transparency'.
The only details so far about this new procedure were provided by prime minister Alberto Fernández: he said the proposed nominations would be open to objections from the public at large.
Kirchner has a month in which to come up with a name -and perhaps another month in which to get his new system enacted.
The other justices. The impeachment commission has announced that it intends to go ahead with the evaluation of the charges filed against the remaining nine supreme court justices. Nazareno was going to be impeached on the strength of 22 charges. Though the number of accusations is no gauge of their gravity, it is worth noting that the charge sheets of all but one of the remaining justices is far more voluminous. Enrique Petracci is at the bottom of the scale with 51 charges; Eduardo Moliné O'Connor at the top with 67 (see table).
It is an indication of the current state of the judiciary that Juan Carlos Maqueda, who only joined the supreme court last December, has already had six charges filed against him.
Justice minister Gustavo Béliz ventured this last weekend that the next to be out through the mill might be Moliné O'Connor and Guillermo López.
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