Juan Carlos Hidalgoformer presidential candidate of the Christian Social Unity Party (PUSC), stated that There is a strategy on the part of the ruling party to generate a Deliberate “paralysis” of the Constitutional Chamberby sabotaging the election of substitute judges of that court.
For Hidalgo, the scenario is “very serious”especially in the context of recent years, in which—as he said—the Chamber has functioned as a counterweight to the decisions of the Executive Branch.
“The Constitutional Chamber has been the body that has put a stop to the government in many of its arbitrariness,” he said.
Juan Carlos Hidalgo accuses the ruling party of trying to “paralyze” Chamber IV
The former candidate went further and attributed a political intention behind an eventual weakening of the court. In his opinion, given the impossibility of gathering the 38 votes necessary to influence the integration of the Chamber, Chavismo would be choosing to generate its technical closure.
Along these lines, he assured that the ruling party’s interest in influencing the Judiciary has been explicit. He alleged that from the beginning they spoke openly about the need to reach 38 votes to appoint related magistrates in the Constitutional Chamber.
However, by not achieving that majority—and after even insisting on the search for “patriotic” deputies—now, according to their reading, they would be betting on an alternative scenario: “the second best scenario for them is to seek the paralysis of the Constitutional Chamber.”
Government promoted changes to the Judiciary
Prior to the start of the electoral campaign, the president Rodrigo Chaves He alluded on different occasions to his ambition to achieve the necessary majority in the Legislative Assembly, to introduce changes in the Judicial Branch.
One of these episodes occurred on July 25, 2025, during the official event organized by the Presidential House in Nicoya, Guanacaste, on the occasion of the celebrations for the Annexation of the Nicoya Party to Costa Rica.
“What I am saying is that think which 40 deputiesregardless of flag, are more likely to agree to fix the Frankenstein that is drowning us, the Judiciary.
“And, let them think about which deputies are part of the chorizo, the exchange and the system, not to vote for them“, declared the president.
Hidalgo also defended the court’s recent role as a brake on executive decisions. He noted that multiple government actions have been stopped by constitutional resolutions, including the auction of radio and television frequencies —which, he said, intended to “sweep dozens of local media outlets”— and the closure of Parque Vivawho in his opinion sought to hit the Nació Groupn. In this context, he insisted that the Chamber has been “consistently stopping the arbitrariness of this government.”
Pilar Cisneros: ‘We do not want to name those judges’
For her part, the head of the official faction, Pilar Cisnerosrejected Hidalgo’s accusation and denied that there was a strategy to paralyze the court. According to him, the position of his party responds to an open political decision: “It is not a strategy… we do not want to appoint those magistrates”.
Cisneros argued that the current process has not been able to generate consensus and questioned the list sent by the Supreme Court of Justice, pointing out that it is a closed group of candidates. In that sense, he stressed that the opposition has not managed to gather the necessary 38 votes, which shows – as he said – the lack of agreements regarding the proposed names.
Under that criterion, he defended that the next Congress be the one to resume the process, but with different rules.
“It seems to us that now we are leaving, thatLet’s leave that task to the other deputies.maybe they can convince the Court make a new contestthat it be an open list, that any lawyer who meets the requirements can participate and they send a list of people who are attractive, or who count on the support of the new deputies“, argument.
“Why are we going to run? There is no reason to runWe have two days of sessions left and we are not going to be hypocrites, we have said we do not want to vote“he added.
What is happening?
On Wednesday, the Legislative Assembly ruled in its sixth attempt to choose substitute judgesafter carrying out two rounds of voting in the plenary.
The opposition groups have blamed the Chavista legislators and their allies for this situation.
Just as they did last week, this Wednesday five Chavista deputies left the plenary session again shortly before the election of substitute magistrates began. In addition, several government allies were absent; among them, legislators from New Republic and Unity.
On the table is the choice of nine magistrateswhose appointment is necessary for this court to function, even when the owners must be absent. On March 16, the appointment of the substitutes that made up the Chamber expired.
The constitutional court is composed of seven members and, if even one of them is absent, due to vacation, illness or any other reason, they would no longer be able to meet, and that would imply the stopping hundreds of appeals for protection that are studied in protection of human rights in the country.
“It is precisely what they are looking for: that there be no Constitutional Chamber. Given the impossibility of capturing that body, because they do not have the 38 votes, then they seek its paralysis,” said Hidalgo.
