Costa Rica’s Supreme Court cannot send lawmakers a new request to lift the immunity of former President Rodrigo Chaves because it lacks the alternate justice needed to form a quorum, Constitutional Chamber Justice Jorge Araya told legislators Friday. The same day, the ruling party voted in committee against his reelection.
Araya made the remarks before the Legislative Assembly’s Appointments Committee in response to a question from Frente Amplio legislator Antonio Trejos about the risk of impunity. He described the situation as very serious and said the lack of an alternate had kept the court from sending its second accusation against Chaves to the Assembly.
The pending request concerns alleged electoral crimes tied to the use of a parallel financing structure in Chaves’s 2022 presidential campaign. Chaves, who now serves as Minister of the Presidency and Minister of Finance, holds immunity from prosecution unless the Assembly votes to lift it.
When the full Supreme Court acts as a tribunal, it must sit with a complete bench. Justice Paul Rueda asked to step aside from the case and his recusal was accepted, so an alternate justice must take his seat before the court can decide whether to forward the request. The Constitutional Chamber has had no alternate justices since mid-December 2025, when the terms of the 12 judges who held those posts expired. Votes in both the previous and current legislatures failed to fill the seats.
In late July, the Constitutional Chamber upheld a legal challenge against the Assembly and ordered it to put the appointments to a vote. The vote was never opened, and the list of 18 candidates was sent back to the Appointments Committee. The shortage has affected the processing of nearly 150 case files.
The appointments have been stalled for months by political disagreements within the committee, which the ruling Pueblo Soberano party controls. At the same session, the committee voted 4-3 against reelecting Araya to a second term as a full justice. Pueblo Soberano legislators Marta Esquivel, Yara Jiménez, Antonio Barzuna and Gerald Bogantes voted against him. Trejos and National Liberation Party (PLN) legislators Janice Sandà and Salvador Padilla voted in favor.
Barzuna said Araya had completed his term and should make way for new people and argued that the justice showed a political leaning toward the PLN. Esquivel pointed to Araya’s past posts in PLN governments. Trejos backed the reelection while saying he disagrees with many of Araya’s rulings, citing his work ethic and his defense of judicial independence. Padilla said past political involvement is not a crime and that no concrete evidence of bias had been presented.
The committee vote is not final. Under Article 158 of the Constitution, Supreme Court justices are automatically reelected unless at least 38 of the Assembly’s 57 legislators vote against them. Pueblo Soberano holds 31 seats, short of that threshold without opposition support.
Lawmakers have already turned down two earlier requests involving Chaves. In late September, the Assembly rejected a Supreme Court request to lift his immunity over an accusation of alleged extortion by a public official in the BCIE-Cariñitos case. Legislators later rejected a request from the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to investigate 15 complaints of alleged political interference.
The new request would be the second from the Supreme Court and the third overall to reach lawmakers. Patricia Solano, president of the court’s Third Chamber, warned of the alternate shortage in July. On Sunday, Solano formally announced her candidacy to preside over the Supreme Court.
Until the Assembly fills the alternate seats, the full court cannot rule on whether to send the electoral case to lawmakers, leaving the accusation against Chaves on hold.
