The Senate and Congress president ties his tenure to Colorado Party results in ten districts of Presidente Hayes in the October 4 municipal elections. He also responded to rumors of an attempt to remove him.
Hernán Rivas
Pytagua coverage mentioning Hernán Rivas.
The Senate approved a motion to prioritize debate on October 7, after the October 4 municipal elections, on a two-year moratorium on creating private universities and higher institutes. The proposal would allow time to review and strengthen controls and the higher-education regulatory framework.
Hernán Rivas signed 31 resolutions of Paraguay’s Magistrates’ Disciplinary Tribunal (JEM) after leaving office—15 of them after his replacement took office—and voted to dismiss 42 cases against judges.
Paraguay’s Chamber of Deputies is scheduled to consider a bill raising the maximum penalty for false reports about acts considered crimes from five to six years and providing for economic compensation.
A review by COAPY and Somos Anticorrupción Py names 21 ANR leaders: six final convictions, five appealable sentences and 10 cases without a final conviction. The list classifies Erico Galeano’s conviction as final while noting a pending constitutional challenge.
Hernán Rivas’s eight-year first-instance conviction, which remains appealable, could strengthen former judge Tania Irún’s constitutional challenge, which points to a discrepancy between his written opinion and decisive vote on the JEM. Mario Varela says he changed his position and backed Rivas’s departure from the JEM’s leadership, while prosecutors foresee new investigations.
Hernán Rivas’s eight-year prison sentence has prompted Paraguayan authorities and lawmakers to call for further investigations into the fake diploma scheme, its possible masterminds and the political support that enabled his rise at the Jury for the Prosecution of Magistrates (JEM), while critics also cited damage to the country’s image and earlier cases involving members of Honor Colorado and former heads of the body.
Former Paraguayan senator Hernán Rivas was sentenced to eight years for the indirect production and use of public documents with false content linked to his professional qualifications. His defense sought acquittal, challenging the search for records, the document-retention period and the lack of a description of a specific act attributed to him.
Warnings and indications—including the registration of his degree with the Ministry of Education and Sciences in just over four hours, his lack of command of legal language, and the mismatch between the creation of the university and the period of study he claimed—were ignored before Hernán Rivas joined the Jurado de Enjuiciamiento de Magistrados, while Celeste Amarilla warned of possible invalidation of the body’s decisions and perjury, and prosecutor Patricia Sánchez reported a threat attributed to him concerning her remaining in office, with no mention of a death threat.
Paraguay’s prosecutors requested a 12-year prison sentence for former senator Hernán Rivas over the alleged use of a false diploma, said he used political influence to obtain registrations and serve on the JEM, cited a threat against prosecutor Patricia Sánchez and requested an investigation of Education Ministry auditor Nilda Rosa Rojas Melgarejo, while the court plans to issue its final decision on September 24 and the case has revived debate over educational privileges, oversight and about 1,500 suspected diplomas.
Hernán Rivas's trial will hear the Public Prosecutor's Office's closing arguments on September 21 and deliver the sentence on September 24, while prosecutors consider investigating possible false testimony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The National Agency for the Evaluation and Accreditation of Higher Education (Aneaes) said during Hernán Rivas’s trial that the law degree from Universidad Sudamericana was not registered with the National Council of Higher Education (Cones) or accredited, while witnesses described aspects of the former senator’s education and prosecutors questioned the dates on academic documents.
Raúl Latorre said Hernán Rivas presented himself as a lawyer to represent the Chamber of Deputies on the JEM. Hugo Estigarribia said a final conviction could prompt an examination of decisions if Rivas’s vote was decisive.
Paraguay’s Chamber of Deputies completed only eight of the year’s 41 sessions because of a lack of quorum, leaving bills unvoted, and is preparing changes to its rules to enforce pay deductions and penalize absent lawmakers.
Paraguay’s Ministry of Education and Sciences restricted the registration of diplomas without accreditation and launched RUE-ES as the trial of Hernán Rivas revealed that his law degree was registered in six minutes after an alleged “higher-up order,” despite irregularities—an allegation denied by former minister Eduardo Petta.
The Supreme Court of Paraguay pays a salary exceeding 22 million guaranis per month to the wife of one of its ministers, who holds the position of director-general, without having a record of her education in the official files, which has drawn strong criticism from legal experts who call the appointment irregular and ethically questionable.
The trial of former senator Hernán Rivas for using a fake law degree exposes widespread flaws in Paraguay's academic document control system, with university authorities admitting irregularities and the Ministry of Education confirming its registration system is insufficient.
Former Senator Enrique Bacchetta alerted the Chamber of Deputies in 2020 about doubts regarding Hernán Rivas' law degree, whose trial for using a false document reveals certificates with serious spelling errors and testimony from a former university rector who claims to have signed it inside a car without ever seeing Rivas attend classes.
President Santiago Peña revoked the controversial "special permission" that had kept Carlos Liseras away from Conajzar, allowing him to resume his post after leaving the Senate, where he had taken a seat due to a vacancy created by the unconstitutional leave of scandal-embroiled Hernán Rivas and the resignation of substitute Julio Borba.
A judge has ordered Paraguay’s Jury for the Impeachment of Magistrates (JEM) to release, within 15 business days, all resolutions and opinions signed by former senator Hernán Rivas. Rivas is on trial over an allegedly falsified law degree.
The trial of former senator Hernán Rivas, accused of using a fake law degree to register as a lawyer and preside over the Magistrates Impeachment Jury (JEM), was postponed for 20 days at the request of his new defense team.
The former mayor of Tomás Romero Pereira reported a G. 1.1 billion asset loss to the Comptroller General's Office, while the Public Prosecutor's Office is investigating a G. 9 billion loss to the municipality and the Chamber of Deputies has kept requests to intervene in the city hall stalled for three years.
Former senator Hernán Rivas will stand trial next Tuesday for falsifying a university degree, after being represented by a public defender appointed at the last minute when all his previous lawyers resigned.
The Paraguayan Ministry of Education and Sciences (MEC) has identified 13 public servants involved in irregularities within the diploma system, with 130,000 suspicious actions and 283 employees under investigation, while the Senate expands its inquiry to include 20 educational institutions, including the Universidad Sudamericana.