“We thought we were working in a corruption-free environment,” he said. Nicolás Santibáñez, president of the National Association of Employees of the Judicial Branch of Chile (Anejud), regarding the crisis of the justice administration system due to recent events that led to the removal of Angela Vivanco of the Supreme Court.
In conversation with the first edition of RadioanalysisSantibáñez asked for the investigations to be carried out with the greatest “disappointment” and expressed: “This situation puts the entire Judicial Branch in crisis and weakens the foundations that support this power of the State.”
“Today it is necessary to reform the structure of the Judicial Branch of appointments and avoid any external influence so that this does not happen again. This has harmed and surprised all of us who are part of this power of the State,” he said.
In the line of changes to the system, Santibáñez expressed “The structure needs to be modified because it comes from the colonial erabe modernized and brought up to date so that these types of practices cannot pass through the Judicial Branch. It is clearly visible to the public here that there is a deficiency that must be corrected with the participation of all the relevant actors, we are also trying to participate.”
“The judicial employees are affected and surprised because we thought we worked in an environment free from corruption and we are giving the best of ourselves (…) Citizens’ trust in this power of the State has been lost that affects hard, in pure democracy,” he said.
As for how the system should evolve, the president of Anejud called for this to be a “participatory” process: “Choose the best so that there is no chance of external influence and for that it must we ask everyone for help and cooperation. Let’s do a job together, we even invite citizens to participate in this work. We are going to find the best model togetherbut taking into account our experience.”
“We cannot leave aside that this case is an opportunity for the Judges to reform the processes and together we can achieve the best,” he argued.
When asked if the next appointment model should have a popular election or be approved by an external body, Santibáñez replied: “Both have something positive. Through a popular election, it would be good, but there would also be a risk, because whoever could be in a representative position could have permeability and external influence, and if I chose only through merit we may lack other foundations. No process is unique and best on its own.”