The game plan to spring former President Arnoldo Alemán from house arrest and place him beyond the reach of the courts has come to light, courtesy of a disgruntled member of the supreme court, who has been talking under a cloak of anonymity.
The plan is to avoid anything as crude as direct intervention by the supreme court now that it has been 'stacked' with new justices as a result of a share-out between the pro-Alemán Liberals and the Sandinistas (WR-03-23). Instead a complex chesslike manoeuvre is envisaged.
The corruption case against Alemán is led by judge Juana Méndez, who is seconded by judge Dominga Ampié. The first gambit is the replacement by the supreme court of Ampié. The candidate for her job is Benjamín Arriaza (son of the deputy mayor of Masaya, Gloria Larios, who faces corruption charges herself).
The second move, also by the supreme court, is to promote Juana Méndez to the Managua appeals court, which would leave Arriaza in charge of the case.
Arriaza is then expected to review a crucial decision by Méndez, rejecting an October 2002 ruling by the Central American court (CCJ) to the effect that Alemán enjoyed immunity from prosecution as a member of the Central American parliament, Parlacen.
This would automatically free Alemán under the guise of virtuous compliance with the CCJ's ruling.
Constitutional experts in Managua say that the Liberal-Sandinista share-out of the supreme court breaks about every rule in the book. It ignored a law stipulating that the nominations of supreme court justices should come from a special commission of magistrates. It also ignored the rule that appointments should be voted on individually, not en bloc. Finally, it included in the same package the replacements of justices whose mandates had expired with those of other justices whose terms have not yet run out.
The big problem, of course, is that seeking a ruling of unconstitutionality would be fruitless, since it would be heard by the very court whose legitimacy was being questioned.
A radical way out of this dilemma has been suggested by constitutional lawyer Gabriel Alvarez. Since the legislators clearly violated the constitution, he says, President Enrique Bolaños is constitutionally empowered to 'use the army to restore constitutional order.' This would entail dissolving the current national assembly and calling new legislative elections.
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