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.
Jurado de Enjuiciamiento de Magistrados
Pytagua coverage mentioning Jurado de Enjuiciamiento de Magistrados.
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.
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.
By October 9, the Juror for the Trial of Magistrates will assess whether four orders requiring reports to be removed from ABC Color’s digital archive constituted censorship and decide whether to open an investigation or proceedings against the judges involved.
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.
Paraguayan justice dismissed the investigation for money laundering and influence peddling against former deputy Orlando Arévalo, his wife, former councilwoman Carolina González, and prosecutor Sandra Ledesma, stemming from a contractual dispute with a construction company.
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.
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.
Congress President Bachi Núñez defended a proposal to nominate two Colorado Party members to the Comptroller General’s Office, citing cases involving former comptrollers linked to the opposition. The report criticized Núñez’s defense, citing his vote for Hernán David Rivas to lead the JEM and the claim that the governing majority could proceed without the opposition.
A judge in Curuguaty, previously recused from the case, ordered a repossession that benefits a mayoral candidate and affects a chia plantation and an indigenous community established decades ago.
Senator Líder Amarilla accuses the ruling majority of imposing a "tyranny of the majority" by monopolizing oversight bodies such as the Comptroller General's Office, the Jury for the Impeachment of Magistrates (JEM), and the Council of the Judiciary.
The Comptroller General's Office has given the father-in-law of former senator Hernán Rivas 20 days to explain the source of funds for a mansion in Lambaré, while Rivas is also facing charges for failing to declare assets and for using an allegedly fake document.
The Paraguayan Senate will decide this Wednesday on the renewal of its representatives on the Jury for the Impeachment of Magistrates and the Magistracy Council, with Senator Derlis Maidana leaving the JEM and Mario Varela seeking to retain his position, while the ruling party attempts to preserve its influence within the justice system.
The removal of Zulma Díaz Penayo from the Education Ministry's universities directorate has widened into a broader debate over oversight, accreditation and transparency in Paraguay's higher education system.