Buenos Aires, March 4 (NA) – Former Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona explained this Wednesday the reasons for his departure from the national government and stated that he understood it was time to step aside to make way for a new era within the ministry. “Someone had to come with the energy they had in 2023,” summarized the former official when referring to his decision to leave the post, after a period of personal and professional burnout after more than a year in office. In a television interview accessed by the Argentine News Agency, Cúneo Libarona revealed that his departure had been discussed months earlier with members of the ruling party's inner circle, although he ultimately agreed to continue for a while longer at the request of President Javier Milei and the General Secretary of the Presidency, Karina Milei. He recounted that the possibility of leaving the Ministry was first raised with Guillermo Francos and Santiago Caputo, and then it was left to a conversation with the head of state, who was out of the country at that time. “I want to return to the personal,” he expressed, admitting that for much of his life he had prioritized work over his family. IP Cúneo Libarona's departure was formalized after a series of transition meetings involving outgoing and incoming officials in the area, with the aim of ensuring an orderly turnover at the Ministry of Justice. #AgenciaNA “I show you all the important acts that were done in the ministry, I did them all myself,” he stated while defending his leading role in the ministry's main measures. Regarding the new stage, he valued the arrival of Juan Bautista Mahiques and the new Secretary of Justice, Santiago Viola, to whom he left a report on pending issues, including the progress of jury trials, the completion of the Criminal Code, and the implementation of the accusatory system in the remaining provinces. In this sense, he considered that his successors have “the age, the conditions, the experience, the suitability, and the team” to deepen the area's agenda and accelerate structural reforms within the judicial system. During the interview, Cúneo Libarona also referred to his historical link with Justice and his training within the judicial sphere, emphasizing that he knows how Comodoro Py and the federal courts work from his childhood, due to the influence of his father. About his future, he anticipated that he will seek to recover personal time, resume his teaching activity at the Law School, and rejoin his law firm, but at a different pace. He mentioned family demands, postponed health issues, and also an academic invitation from a German university to further his studies in Criminal Law, an area in which he developed much of his career. “I believe the best I can do for the country and for myself is to step aside,” he affirmed, while emphasizing that the turnover had been agreed upon since last October and that his stay until March was part of a transition agreed upon with the government leadership. In reviewing his tenure, Cúneo Libarona defended the work done at the head of the Ministry of Justice and listed as main achievements the implementation of the accusatory system in 17 provinces, the push for the trial-in-absence law, the progress of initiatives related to the juvenile penal regime, and the work done to avoid international sanctions within the framework of the FATF. He also highlighted the number of trips made around the country to promote judicial reforms and fill vacancies in courts and prosecutor's offices. However, he recounted that both Karina and Milei had asked him to remain in office to sustain management and order the transition. The former minister indicated that the final decision was a combination of personal and political factors.
