Desafuero is a legal term used in Spanish-speaking countries to remove official immunity from government officials so they can be prosecuted. This process can be initiated by citizens and can lead to a normal court case. Desafuero can also be used for impeachment proceedings and can attract public attention. In some countries, losing a desafuero case can limit career opportunities for politicians. Legal translators need specific training to handle desafuero cases appropriately.
Desafuero is a Spanish-language legal term used to refer to situations where official immunity is waived from members of the government so they can be prosecuted. In some Spanish-speaking nations, people holding public office are immune from prosecution unless a committee specifically takes away that immunity, stripping the official of privileges and making it possible to take him to court. This term is commonly encountered in Latin America, where citizens can initiate proceedings to bring a public official such as a mayor to court.
This term translates as “desecration” or “sacrilege” and the legal meaning is distinct and separate from these meanings. This can cause confusion when translating texts into Spanish, unless the translator is familiar with the desafuero process. This illustrates the importance of specific training for legal translators to ensure they are able to handle texts appropriately.
Political officials can become subject to desafuero in a variety of situations. Citizens can ask to be able to sue for activities carried out in a way that abuses the power of this office, such as refusal to grant permits or fraudulent collection of taxes. A committee can review the facts of the case and the situation and determine whether to make the politician eligible for prosecution. After the desafuero, it will be possible to sue that politician in a normal court.
The removal of immunity may be necessary for impeachment proceedings and similar situations where politicians need to be prosecuted by their own government, not just members of the public. A desafuero hearing can determine whether the government can file a lawsuit against a politician to remove him from office or take other steps. Such hearings often attract public attention and can be covered extensively in the media and discussed by members of the public interested in politics.
In some countries, there are additional steps to this process. In Mexico, for example, politicians not only lose their government immunity, they also lose the right to run again. Desafuero can be a form of censorship here because it limits career opportunities. Public officials taken to court who lose may find it difficult to find work because the losing court case will be seen as a black mark on their records. Particularly in bribery cases and other situations that suggest a politician may lack integrity, employers may understandably be reluctant to hire one, especially if the media coverage has been intense.
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