The small Malaga municipality of Humilladero woke up this Friday in shock at the death last morning of one of its neighbors, Carmen Cortés, allegedly at the hands of her ex-husband, whom the Civil Guard arrested a few hours after the event was known.

Apparently and according to Efe, the woman was able to betray her alleged attacker before dying. This would not have been the first assault that the victim would have suffered, since it so happened that on July 15 there was another incident between the deceased today and the detainee.

Carmela, as her family and friends affectionately called her, “was afraid” of her ex-husband, from whom she was separated, but with whom she had continued to maintain contact in an “intermittent” relationship, a relative of the victim told EL MUNDO who prefers to preserve his identity, but about fifteen days ago he had asked one of his nephews for help, he explains. Even so, no one expected what has finally happened to happen, he adds.

A temporary farm worker, Carmela, 54 years old, married at the end of July 1984 in the town of Alameda, also in Málaga, the place where her ex-husband -nicknamed El Zorro- originates from and where the agents of the Armed Institute have arrested him.. A neighbor of this town of just over 3,000 inhabitants in the Antequera region, in the northern part of the province of Malaga, she had three children with her ex-husband and alleged aggressor, although one of them died a few years ago. He was born there and has lived there until this Friday when he lost his life in what everything indicates could be a new episode of sexist violence.

In Humilladero, whose residents have observed a minute of silence this Friday at 12 noon in memory of the deceased woman and in rejection of gender violence, its mayor, Miguel Ángel Pérez, has lamented “the strange circumstances” in which Carmen Cortés died, and in a municipal proclamation, published on social networks, Pérez has decreed a day of official mourning in the municipality, as well as that the flags fly at half mast in the City Hall throughout the day.

From the Flor de Albahaca women's association in Humiladerense, its president Juana Ruiz, has not hesitated to show regret and rejection for what happened, both on behalf of this entity and on her own. “When we see it on TV or hear it on the radio, it seems that it does not go with us,” Ruiz has published on his social networks, but “sexist violence kills.”

The Civil Guard has opened an investigation to clarify the circumstances of the death of Carmen Cortés, who was admitted this Thursday at the Regional Hospital of Malaga with a head injury. Although the agents have already arrested the ex-husband of the victim, they are now waiting for the autopsy to shed some light on the details of the death.

The events occurred in the Malaga town of Humilladero around four in the morning from Thursday to Friday. At that time, the 112 Andalusia Emergency Service received a call alerting that a 54-year-old woman was having difficulty breathing, according to Diario Sur and confirmed by Efe with police and health sources.

Members of the health services and a Civil Guard patrol went to the place and after first assistance, the woman was transferred to the Antequera Regional Hospital, where she was admitted with head trauma.. Due to her serious condition, she had to be evacuated by helicopter to the Regional Hospital, where she died hours later, according to health sources.

If confirmed as a sexist murder, with Carmen Cortés it would be the fifth woman to lose her life at the hands of her partner or ex-partner only in the month of July and the 29th of the fatalities recorded this year as a result of sexist violence.

Bel Pozueta, mother of Adur Ramírez de Alda, convicted of hitting a civil guard in Alsasua, could not suppress a huge smile last Friday in Villava (Navarra). “We have achieved, after 40 years, the transfer of Traffic”, he congratulated himself to underline, then, that “this has hurt them”. Pozueta has practically assured her re-election as a representative for Navarra in Congress and what “has hurt” victims of terrorism, some political parties and the 150 civil guards of the Traffic Unit was that President Pedro Sánchez gave Bildu the goodbye of the Navarre roads from the agents of the Armed Institute.

The nationalist left closed yesterday in San Sebastián the most intense campaign in a general election. Without candidates with direct links to ETA on their lists, the coalition led by Arnaldo Otegi tries to extend its good results from 28-M -second force in votes after the PNV but first in councilors in the Basque Country- to 23-J. The two nationalist forces dispute in the Basque “national ballot boxes”, in the words of Otegi, the 18 deputies at stake in the Basque Country are practically tied, while in Navarra -where 5 congressmen are elected- only EH Bildu has the option of achieving a representative because Geroa Bai (a coalition in which the PNV is part) is very far from the PSOE of Navarra, UPN and even Javier García's PP.

In the Basque Country and Navarra several simultaneous games are played starting with the presidential duel between Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Pedro Sánchez. All the polls published before last Tuesday place the PNV, EH Bildu and the Basque PSOE tied at 5 seats. The Basque PP has secured the seat of Bea Fanjul for Vizcaya -which it already achieved in 2019- and will recover with Javier de Andrés the representative for Álava that it lost four years ago. Sumar, the political space that in 2016 came to win the general elections in the Basque Country, will be left with only one deputy although it is barely 400 votes away from taking away from the PSE-EE the Guipúzcoa seat that Pedro Sánchez tried to consolidate with his express trip last Tuesday to San Sebastián when he left the EU-Celac summit.

In the Basque Country, Sánchez would accumulate eleven supports and would have to convince Andoni Ortuzar again, his supporter in the motion of no confidence against Rajoy in 2018 and in the investiture in 2019. The Basque nationalists, however, have suffered a decrease in their ability to influence before EH Bildu and ERC and will raise their demands and “guarantees” if Sánchez needs them.

“We are not anyone's crutch”, Aitor Esteban, the person in charge of giving electoral air to a PNV that has not had time to digest the consolidation of EH Bildu as an alternative in the Basque Country with regional elections scheduled, has repeated in the campaign, if Urkullu does not precipitate his advance, in the spring of 2024.

In the regional community, UPN and PP settle their second electoral battle after the breakup of the Navarra Suma coalition. On 28-M, the regionalist formation achieved 92,392 votes compared to 24,019 for the PP, but Feijóo's party aspires to exceed 45,000 ballots to ensure a seat. The Socialists, who have paralyzed the formation of the Government of Navarra to avoid the photo with Bildu, would maintain their two seats.

A total of 163 journalists, most of them professionals specialized in information on courts and events, have signed a letter addressed to the General Council of the Judiciary and the State Attorney General expressing their “intense concern” about the unprecedented sentence that the Provincial Court of Huelva has imposed on a journalist for publishing in detail several proceedings related to the murder of the young Laura Luelmo in a town in Huelva in 2018.. The ruling, which had the support of the Prosecutor's Office, sentenced the journalist of the Huelva Información newspaper to two years in prison -and professionally disqualified-, who published various truthful information.

In the document sent to the governing body of judges and the Attorney General's Office, the journalists warn of the danger that “judges decide what is or is not newsworthy or what parts of reality should be published or hidden from citizens”. “Court journalists decide what we publish in accordance with the citizens' right to information, journalistic interest, editorial autonomy and the commitment to the audience of each media outlet.. (…) By recounting what happened in extremely serious crimes, the media inform public opinion of something they have a right to know: how crimes are investigated and prosecuted”, add the information professionals.

In addition, the journalists who sign the aforementioned documents – members of all the newsrooms of the main media outlets in the country, including EL MUNDO – describe as “very serious” that journalistic criteria be replaced by “the particular perception of each judge about what is or is not in a news story, resorting to the highest penal power of the State, jail, as a disproportionate punishment.”

“Court journalists know that privacy is one of the limits to freedom of information. We do not justify sensationalism or invasions of privacy that do not have a strict journalistic motivation.. Not everything goes in our trade. But a balance between both rights is required, which the Court of Huelva completely omits. (…) The secrecy of the investigation is not required of journalists, but exclusively of those forced to keep it (to which, by the way, a specific criminal offense is applied with less severe penalties than those provided for in article 197).. For this reason, the sentence can hardly be based on a crime of disclosure of summary secrets by journalists, protected by the duty and the right to exercise the freedoms protected by article 20.1d) of the Constitution,” they stress.

In addition, the signatories emphasize that “the criminal repression of possible excesses committed, instead of being sanctioned by civil jurisdiction, can cause journalists a discouragement effect that is enormously detrimental to the right to information of citizens.”

The unpublished sentence is not final and has already been appealed before the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia.

All roads lead Vox to Colon. Santiago Abascal went this Friday to the square of its symbolic majorities, that of its historical claims, to its electoral amulet surrounded by the entire leadership of the party to, after 11,000 kilometers of route, close the most important campaign for Vox. With 36 hours to go before the polling stations open, Abascal launched the latest proclamation to demand that his people, unlike the Popular Party, not relax: “The battle has not been won.”

“There remains one last effort to convince our compatriots”. The entire Vox leadership oozed intensity so that the electorate does not give up or trust. Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, Ignacio Garriga or Jorge Buxadé, among others, encouraged those present to continue trying to convince their entourage until Sunday so that the result of Vox is as broad as possible and thus be able to guarantee “the alternative”.. “It is a historic opportunity for Spain to begin to change course,” launched the Secretary General.

Abascal accused Alberto Núñez Feijóo, taking advantage of the end of the campaign, of “laundering” Pedro Sánchez and his government management with his offer of State pacts and with the proposed agreement so that the most voted list governs. This is the argument that Vox is exploiting from the face-to-face held on Monday of last week on RTVE: promise that the only vote that guarantees an agenda directly opposed to sanchismo is the one that goes to Santiago Abascal. A strategy with which to try to stop the transfer of votes to the PP that the polls detect. “It is not a useful vote; it is a confusing vote,” warned Garriga about the popular option.

In fact, Espinosa de los Monteros said that there are only two options in these elections: either bet on “red” or “green”. “The blue button doesn't work,” he asserted.. Something to which Abascal joined, who said he understood and respected the loyalty of the popular voter to Alberto Núñez Feijóo, but still launched himself for his support: “I dare to ask for your confidence. We are not going to let them down, we are capable of representing them.”

The Vox leadership was not alone in Colón. More than 5,000 people, according to the party's count, filled a closing rally that included the participation, as throughout the campaign, of fifteen international leaders of the alternative right linked to Vox: the Prime Ministers of Italy, Giorgia Meloni; Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, and Hungary, Viktor Orbán, intervened and encouraged Abascal to expand the success of his partners throughout Europe to Spain.. Numerous representatives of the party's Latin American alliances also participated, such as José Antonio Kast, a former Chilean conservative leader.

Vox comes from running a more moderate campaign than in the municipal and regional ones. Even so, Abascal denounced that this has been “the most aggressive, toughest and most difficult” that his party has faced, which opted to play at home in almost all acts: he went to his fiefdoms and where he recently established himself as a government force. And he faced the final stretch in its most emblematic squares: Toledo, Guadalajara, Murcia and Madrid as the culmination of his caravan.

In the middle of this route, the three-way debate held on Wednesday on RTVE served Vox to recharge emotions and redouble its power for the last sprint. In the leadership of the party they believe that the role that Abascal played, encompassing the entire right in the absence of Alberto Núñez Feijóo and confronting him alone with the two government leaders, Pedro Sánchez and Yolanda Díaz, gave wings to the candidate and strength to the party in the final stretch of the race to the polls.

The Supreme Court has notified this Friday the two sentences where it annuls the appointment of Eduardo Esteban as prosecutor of the Juvenile Chamber. Esteban, a member of the Progressive Union of Prosecutors, was nominated for the position up to two times by the former State Attorney General, Dolores Delgado.. It was one of the most controversial appointments made by the former Minister of Justice since the other candidate for the position, the public prosecutor José Miguel de la Rosa, was one of the greatest specialists in matters of Minors in Spain.

The High Court annulled in April 2022 the appointment of Esteban as prosecutor of the Juvenile Chamber alleging lack of motivation. Even so, Delgado reappointed Eduardo Esteban to the position despite the fact that the Supreme Court stressed that the resumes between the two candidates for the position – Esteban and De la Rosa – were not comparable.

The Contentious-Administrative Chamber, in the new judgments known today, underlines that “the question raised here is not whether the State Attorney General has adequately motivated that Mr. Esteban Rincón can be promoted to the category of Chamber Prosecutor, nor even if he would deserve it more than Mr. De la Rosa Cortina if the latter were not already so.. What is being debated here is something else, namely: if, when awarding a specific position with a specific profile, such as the Juvenile Division Prosecutor's Office, a candidate without any theoretical or practical experience in the matter should be preferred over another who has proven to be a true specialist in it; and if this, in addition, can reasonably be motivated on the basis of arguments that explicitly avoid giving weight and relevance to the specific preparation in Juvenile Law, pointing out that what is truly decisive are other considerations (experience in the leadership, practice of Constitutional Law, harmony with the criminal policy orientation of the State Attorney General, etc.)”.

The judges have a clear answer: no.. “When it comes to deciding who is most suitable to fill a position that has a well-identified profile, the merits specifically related to said profile cannot be underestimated, if not ignored,” read the resolutions presented by magistrate Luis Díez-Picazo.

The High Court responds to Delgado that “putting all the emphasis on other considerations” to justify the appointment of Eduardo Esteban “is not acceptable because it eludes the core of the issue”. “That he used twenty-two pages does not alter this conclusion,” added the magistrates.

“The enormous difference in merits between the two candidates as regards Juvenile Law was already revealed by our previous rulings- And given this, the only thing that the new proposal does, which serves as motivation for the contested administrative act, is essentially to say that knowledge and practice in Juvenile Law are not really relevant for the exercise of the position of Prosecutor of the Juvenile Chamber”.

The Chamber explains that the arguments displayed by Delgado are not “convincing” since it is not “a minimally adequate motivation for what it is trying to justify”. “The best proof of this is that the arguments of the State Attorney General could have been equally used for any other profiles of specialized prosecutors (drug trafficking, computer crimes, trafficking, etc.),” they add.

In addition, the Supreme Court reminds Dolores Delgado that her decisions must be subject to judicial control. “The State Attorney General in her proposal insists that the orientation of the criminal policy that corresponds to her -as well as, more generally, her function of directing the whole of the Public Prosecutor's Office- grants her the power to prefer some candidates over others according to the greater or lesser harmony of these with her guidelines. This idea, with the forcefulness with which it has been expressed in this case, cannot be accepted. Certainly the State Attorney General may legitimately consider some people more valuable and suitable than others, and no one could sensibly criticize that the State Attorney General's convictions – like anyone else's – influence her preferences.. But elevating this unavoidable bias to an explicit, objective and legitimate criterion of preference is not in accordance with the Law outside the cases of selection for positions of trust through free appointment”, underline the magistrates of the Third Chamber.

On the other hand, the Supreme Court establishes clear criteria for promotions to prosecutors of the highest category and to a position of specialist. “When someone is promoted to the category of Chamber Prosecutor it is forever, in the same way that when someone is awarded the position of Juvenile Chamber Prosecutor it is temporarily indefinite.. In other words, both the category promotion and the awarding of the position will continue to be effective after the State Attorney General who made the proposal ceases to hold office, which by legal imperative is limited in time.. Thus, reasoning in terms of harmony with one's own orientation when making proposals for appointments is still trying to perpetuate that orientation, conditioning, where appropriate, future State Attorneys General. And this, whatever the political assessment that each one deserves, lacks a discernible normative foundation, and of course it is not a reason that can be adduced to motivate a decision in the seat of appointments”.

The Chamber refuses to roll back the actions – “because it would not make sense to prolong the proposals and their motivations to infinity” when “the State Attorney General's Office had the opportunity to make a second proposal, motivating it in such a way that the reasons given had some significant relationship with the characteristics of the position to be filled” and it did not – and cancels the appointment of Esteban, who loses the highest category of prosecutor and the destination.

It will be the next State Attorney General who must put out to competition the position of prosecutor of the Juvenile Chamber.

The sentences have the particular vote of Judge Pilar Teso, where she defends that the appointment of Esteban was “widely motivated, because, according to the jurisprudence of this Third Chamber, an isolated merit cannot be chosen and valued separately, nor can that merit of experience in minors be converted into a regulated element that allows us to delve into the core of the discretionary decision”.. “In short, because the body that exercises discretionary power cannot be deprived of the wide margin of appreciation, which our jurisprudence has been recognizing in this type of appointments,” explains Teso.