The conviction of former senator Hernán Rivas and his eight-year prison sentence, handed down on September 24, opened new lines of investigation and reignited debate over the political support that brought him to the Jury for the Prosecution of Magistrates (JEM), Paraguay’s body responsible for trying judges and other magistrates. The Public Prosecutor’s Office has already referred background information to the courts to investigate possible responsibility by former academic and government officials, including former rector Euclides Acevedo, former dean Oscar Rodríguez Kennedy and former Education Minister Eduardo Petta. It also sent information to the Attorney General’s Office about suspicions of false testimony during the trial.
Prosecutor Patricia Sánchez called the sentence a significant result in a case involving public documents with false content and said the investigation into possible participants could still make progress. The sentence was set by a majority; Judge Juan Carlos Zárate voted for 14 years, while prosecutors had sought 12. Rivas’s imprisonment depends on the ruling becoming final.
Lawmakers and former legislators say accountability should not stop with Rivas. Raúl Benítez said the former senator did not reach power on his own and called for an investigation into the lawmakers who backed his appointments, even after questions arose about his diploma. Rivas served on the JEM as a representative of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate and went on to become the body’s president.
Former senator Kattya González, who testified at the trial, said the conviction shows that “no one is above the law” and called for consequences for political accomplices as well. She recalled losing her Senate seat after denouncing Rivas and said the motion to remove him from office that she submitted on December 12, 2023, was accompanied by 1,119 pages of documents.
Senator Yolanda Paredes of the National Crusade Party called for further investigations and proposed examining the role of Universidad Sudamericana and those who signed or validated the diploma. She also introduced a bill to temporarily suspend authorization for new private universities and courses while the diploma-issuance system is reviewed. Paredes accused the Honor Colorado movement, a faction of the Colorado Party led by former president Horacio Cartes, of having prior knowledge of the suspicions and providing Rivas with political protection; she described the case as part of a “criminal structure” producing fake diplomas. These are the senator’s political accusations, not findings in the court ruling.
Deputy Rocío Vallejo criticized governing-party lawmakers who said Rivas had deceived them, arguing that groups that supported him cannot simply distance themselves from political responsibility. She also said his appointment had caused great damage to Paraguay’s image and raised doubts about the credibility of the justice system.
Former Supreme Court Justice José Altamirano called for the conviction to serve as a basis for investigating the broader fake diploma scheme and criticized the length of the proceedings, saying evidence of Rivas’s lack of legal training had existed from the outset. As another proposed institutional response, José Duarte Penayo, president of the National Agency for the Evaluation and Accreditation of Higher Education (ANEAES), backed audits of diplomas held by officials and public servants in positions of responsibility. He said more than 100,000 diplomas from non-accredited courses had been registered in the previous three years, and that the agency had requested intervention in more than 100 law courses. A course’s lack of accreditation does not, by itself, mean that a diploma is fake.
The case is also part of a history of convictions and investigations involving members of Honor Colorado and former JEM presidents. Those named among the convicted include Óscar Venancio “Ñoño” Núñez, Joaquín Daniel Roa, Erico Galeano, Hilario Adorno and Rivas himself. Former JEM president Óscar González Daher was convicted in 2021; Jorge Bogarín Alfonso resigned as president after being designated “significantly corrupt” by the U.S. State Department; and Orlando Arévalo faces a preliminary hearing in an investigation into alleged bribery, although a separate case against him was dismissed in August 2026.
Deputy Arnaldo Valdez warned that JEM decisions made with Rivas’s participation could be challenged. So far, however, available accounts do not point to a court ruling that has invalidated any decisions by the panel: any appeals and their effects will have to be assessed case by case.