The President of the Republic, José Raúl Mulino, raised a direct and severe criticism against the performance of guarantee and compliance judges, by considering that they are not acting with the necessary firmness in the face of criminal cases that reach the courts, which —he warned— seriously weakens the fight against crime in the country. Mulino stated that the efforts of the security agencies and the Ministry of Justice are lost when the processes advance to the Judicial Branch and decisions are not adopted in accordance with the severity of the crimes. In this sense, he ruled out the need to create new criminal laws and affirmed that the real problem lies in the non-compliance with the already existing norms. According to the president, the criminal justice system operates incompletely, since while the National Police and the Ministry of Public fulfill their investigative and accusatory role, guarantee and compliance judges do not always accompany that effort with firm and timely resolutions. The president also expressed his concern about the focus of the guarantee criminal system, pointing out that in practice, high-danger crimes —such as drug trafficking or homicide— are equated with lesser-impact behaviors, which generates a message of permissiveness and lack of real consequences for criminals. Likewise, Mulino explained that the Ministry of Public today faces greater operational limitations, since raids and fundamental procedures require multiple judicial authorizations, which slows down investigations and can compromise their effectiveness. In his view, while there is no coherent and articulated action among all the actors in the system, the real fight against crime will continue to be weakened. Although he recognized that these guarantees are an essential part of the Rule of Law, he expressed his disagreement with the lack of coordination between justice and security agencies. In his analysis, the head of the Executive concluded that there is a structural disconnection between the justice system and security policies, which causes the fight against crime to advance unevenly.
