Prosecutors requested a 12-year prison sentence for former Colorado senator Hernán Rivas, accused of indirectly producing a public document containing false information and using false public documents. The request was presented on September 21, during the closing arguments of the oral trial, which is still underway; the court said it will issue its final judgment on September 24, while the defense may present its arguments.
The prosecution says Rivas used a certificate of studies and a law degree from Universidad Sudamericana to obtain professional registration at the Ministry of Education and Sciences (MEC), take an oath before the Supreme Court of Justice and secure a professional license. Using those documents, the Chamber of Deputies appointed him to the Jurado de Enjuiciamiento de Magistrados (JEM), the body responsible for judging the conduct of judges and prosecutors in Paraguay, which he went on to preside over.
Prosecutor Patricia Sánchez, who is responsible for the case, said the evidence presented showed that the academic record attributed to Rivas does not correspond to a real, coherent and verifiable university history. Prosecutor Christian Benítez pointed to the physical impossibility of the accused attending in-person classes in Luque or Ciudad del Este while living in Tomás Romero Pereira, in the department of Itapúa, and working full-time in the departmental administration.
Among the elements cited were the absence of examination records, attendance records, records of examining panels and student lists, as well as contradictions in the topics attributed to the thesis. The prosecution also maintains that Rivas used the documents before the MEC, the Supreme Court and Congress, using his political influence to obtain a registration process considered irregular and accelerated. In the prosecution’s view, the documents allowed him to hold a position of authority over magistrates without having the claimed legal training.
During the closing arguments, Sánchez also mentioned a threat made against her through a third party. According to the prosecution, the intimidation was intended to prevent the official from exercising the powers of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, stop the case from advancing and weaken the criminal prosecution. The accusation says Rivas’s role on the JEM undermined confidence in decisions involving judges, prosecutors and public defenders and damaged the credibility of the administration of justice.
In a separate measure, prosecutors requested that the records of MEC auditor Nilda Rosa Rojas Melgarejo be sent so that her conduct could be investigated for possible obstruction of criminal prosecution, provided for in Article 292 of the Criminal Code. The request arose from testimony she gave at the trial and does not amount to a formal accusation or a finding of guilt. According to the prosecution, Rojas was part of the team that produced a report favorable to Rivas’s documents, acknowledged shortcomings in the verification process and allegedly failed to answer whether the certificate met the requirements for registration.
The trial is taking place on Youth Day, celebrated in Paraguay on September 21 alongside the arrival of spring. The date highlighted the contrast between students’ efforts and the suspected privileges involved in gaining professional credentials. Damiana Rivarola, a 34-year-old Mbya Guarani Indigenous woman, is in her third year of social work at the National University of Asunción (UNA), in San Lorenzo, and must take six bus trips a day between Tarumandy, Luque, and the campus. “If I did not have a scholarship, I could not continue,” she said. She also described discriminatory comments from classmates who said Indigenous people should not attend university.
Thiara Pérez, a spokesperson for the National Union of Student Centers (Unepy) and a student at a public school in Itacurubí de la Cordillera, said doubts about recognized diplomas and courses affect nearby families: a relative allegedly discovered in the final year of a degree that they were studying at an institution with questionable academic offerings. The Rivas case is also part of an investigation led by prosecutor Teresa Sosa into about 1,500 diplomas allegedly falsified at the MEC, while the National Council of Higher Education (CONES) is cited in the debate over oversight of institutions and courses.