Dolores Delgado, former Minister of Justice and former State Attorney General, took office this Friday as prosecutor of the Human Rights and Democratic Memory Chamber, in an act presided over by the Attorney General, Álvaro García Ortiz.
The act was held at the headquarters of the General Prosecutor's Office and in the same Dolores Delgado has been sponsored by the lieutenant prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Ángeles Sánchez Conde, reports the General Prosecutor's Office.
Álvaro García Ortiz has listed some aspects of Delgado's curriculum throughout his career in relation to human rights and democratic memory, which, in his opinion, make her the most suitable person for the position, both as a prosecutor, a career to which she agreed to more than 33 years ago, as her mandate as minister and attorney general.
The attorney general has highlighted his work in the Scilingo case and death flights in 2005, the trial of ex-soldier Ricardo Miguel Cavallo for the crimes that occurred in Argentina during the military dictatorship, the Rwanda case, the lawsuit over the attack on the embassy of Spain in Kabul in 2015 and the procedure regarding the terrorist organization Boko Haram. In addition, his intervention in the International Criminal Court in the Libyan case on the repression of the Muammar al-Gadhafi regime.
García Ortiz recalled that as minister she created the General Directorate of Historical Memory, prepared the draft law for the modification of universal jurisdiction, made a census of victims of the civil war and the dictatorship and reactivated the procedures for declaration and reparation of victims. He has also stressed that he directed the file for the exhumation of the remains of the dictator Francisco Franco and attended the exhumation and reburial act as the kingdom's chief notary, and promoted numerous acts of homage to Spanish citizens who were part of the republican exile.
Dolores Delgado was appointed to lead this new Prosecutor's Office by the Council of Ministers last Tuesday. Just a few hours after learning of the appointment of Dolores Delgado, the Association of Prosecutors announced that it will debate and reflect within its executive committee on the possibility of challenging it through the courts..
The association considers that the appointment could incur a cause of nullity, understanding that “the incompatibility” of Delgado for this position “is evident” when his “sentimental partner”, the lawyer and former judge Baltasar Garzón, “has promoted the law of democratic memory and the creation of a courtroom prosecutor's office competent in the matter.
The Baltasar Garzón International Foundation, chaired by the former judge, rejected these criticisms on Thursday for their “personal relationship”, something that it considers “patriarchal”, while defending “transparency” and the work of the organization. “Reducing the work of the foundation to the figure of its president, a man, and even worse, suggesting that the impartiality of a person, a woman, is compromised by a personal relationship, is patriarchal, and we cannot but publicly reject it,” denounced the FIBGAR Foundation in a statement.