US embassy cable - 04SANTODOMINGO1299

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SANTO DOMINGO 001299 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CAR (MCISAAC) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KJUS, PGOV, PREL, DR 
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN ELECTIONS #23 - POLITICS AFFECTS THE 
SUPREME COURT 
 
REF: SANTO DOMINGO 
 
1. (SBU) This is cable number 23 in our presidential election 
series. 
 
 
      Politics affects the Supreme Court 
 
 
President Mejia's PRD appears to be positioning itself to 
pack the Supreme Court with PRD party members, less than 
three months before the presidential election,  If Mejia 
loses the May 16 elections, friends and PRD supporters on the 
Court could prevent successful prosecutions of Mejia 
administration officials for real or alleged abuses while in 
office. 
 
Since February 16 both the Senate and House have named 
members to a Judicial Council (Consejo Nacional de la 
Magistatura or CNM).  The CNM has authority to select judges 
for vacancies on the Supreme Court and to designate the Chief 
Justice. Members of the CNM are the President of the 
Republic, the presidents of the Senate and the House, one 
other Senator and one other Representative, the Chief 
Justice, and one other Supreme Court Associate Judge to act 
as secretary. 
 
There are no vacancies on the bench, so the only apparent 
item of business for a newly convened CNM would be the 
selection of a new President of the Supreme Court. 
 
Supreme Court president Jorge Subero Isa, a respected jurist, 
has led the reform-minded court of 16 members since 1997.  He 
has been apolitical since ascending to the bench.  In 
mid-January he threatened to resign from his position after 
sharp clashes in open court and in chambers with other 
judges; he delivered a letter to other court members formally 
requesting a vote of confidence of at least three-quarters of 
the justices.  Prominent NGOs and members of civil society 
urged him to remain. This Embassy did the same.  Subero Issa 
reportedly received the requested endorsement from his fellow 
justices.  In private, he has told the Embassy that the Court 
is under "tremendous pressure." 
 
Both legislators chosen for the CNM are from the PRSC and are 
said to be friendly to the President's PPH faction of the 
PRD.  Debate in the House on February 20 included complaints 
about the slow progress in judicial reform.  House Chairman 
Alfredo Pacheco commented that the renewal of the CNM was 
needed in order to "oversee the Court." 
 
The Council can now be convoked at the pleasure of the 
President.  If it names a new Chief Justice, the touchy 
Subero Isa would certainly resign. This would create a 
vacancy which would allow the PRD to select a Supreme Court 
Chief Justice more to its liking and to nominate a PRD 
sympathizer to Subero Isa's vacated slot. 
 
With Subero Issa gone, the PRD could increase the pressure on 
three other justices to resign.  All are over the mandatory 
retirement age of 75 set by the 1997 Judicial Career Act; 
since they were already serving lifetime appointments on the 
Court at that time they were "grandfathered" into their 
positions.  By naming a new Chief Justice plus three new 
justices, the PRD could compromise the Court's independence. 
The count of patent PRD sympathizers would rise from 7, 
headed by Subero Issa's severest critic Justice Luciano, to 
11, a majority. 
 
In 1997 when the Court was reformed, civil society 
organizations played a prominent role in "vetting" nominees, 
objecting successfully to some with limited qualifications at 
the bar; in 2000, however, the CNM ignored comments from 
civil society, appointing three justices whose ties with the 
PRD were stronger than their service with the judiciary. If 
the CNM wrests for itself the role of appointing new 
justices, the litmus test of its intentions will be its 
receptiveness to civil society comment. (There is no 
equivalent here to our American Bar Association; the "Colegio 
de Abogados" is by and large a social association ad there is 
no authority which certifies the qualifications of would-be 
attorneys or jurists.) 
The Chief Justice sets the Court's agenda. A PRD partisan in 
that chair could see that cases of particular interest to the 
PRD could be heard expeditiously or delayed indefinitely. 
Regardless of the outcome of the presidential election, the 
PRD will retain its control of the Senate and its 
near-control of the Chamber of Deputies at least until the 
congressional elections of 2006.  The recent maneuvers 
suggest that PRD dominance in Congress is seeking PRD 
dominance in the judicial branch.  If Leonel Fernandez comes 
home triumphant, as many expect, he would have a decidedly 
unsympathetic set of faces ready to move against him in the 
other branches of government.  And, just as much of concern, 
the packing of the Supreme Court would be a setback to 
efforts sice 1997 to strengthen the judiciary and to make it 
independent. 
 
2.  (U) Drafted by Angela Kerwin. 
 
3.  (U) This report, our entire election series and other 
current material can be consulted on our SIPRNET website: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodomingo/ index.cfm  . 
MARSHALL