The complaint against deputy prosecutor Soledad Machuca, of the Specialized Unit for Economic Crimes and Anti-Corruption (UDEA), has remained without review by the Jury for the Prosecution of Magistrates (JEM) since October 2023. Deputies Leidy Paola Galeano and Patricia Alexandra Senna, of the National Crusade Party, accuse Machuca of shelving the investigation into the authenticity of the law degree of former Colorado Party senator Hernán Rivas Román.
The case dates back to June 2020, when an accusation emerged that Rivas had used a fake degree to take a seat on the JEM as a representative of the Chamber of Deputies. The accusation against Machuca claims she failed to carry out basic steps, such as checking whether the former legislator had classmates or whether the signatories of the diploma knew of his student status, given that Sudamericana University was founded in 2010 and the law curriculum requires six years — Rivas would have graduated in 2013.
“Machuca shelved a complaint we filed 4 years, 3 months and 13 days ago. She omitted to investigate then-deputy Hernán Rivas for alleged production of non-authentic documents,” said attorney Federico Campos López Moreira, who is sponsoring the accusation.
In August 2025, the complaint was on the verge of being dismissed by the JEM. The intention to dismiss was blocked by a request from Supreme Court Justice Manuel Ramírez Candia, who said he had doubts about the opinion of the body's Legal Affairs Directorate. The case has not been taken up again since.
In the legislative sphere, Senator Yolanda Paredes, also of the National Crusade Party, denounced in April of this year alleged maneuvers within the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Judiciary that would benefit Rivas, who was recently acquitted in the fake degree case. Paredes described Machuca as “the black monk inside the Attorney General's Office” and said the prosecutor also shelved her complaints against former mayor Javier Zacarías Irún and his wife.
According to the Public Prosecutor's Office accusation, Rivas would have studied law at Sudamericana University between 2010 and 2015, presented his thesis in 2016 and obtained a certificate of studies in 2018. The law degree was issued in March 2020 and registered with the Ministry of Education and Sciences in June of the same year. The prosecution identified that the document was used for Rivas to occupy a seat on the JEM after being appointed by the Chamber of Deputies in July 2020.