Mariana Mota

Mariana Mota is a Uruguayan judge. She served as a judge on the Criminal Court of First Instance in the 7th district of the city of Montevideo, where she was investigating more than 50 complaints of human rights violations linked to the civil-military dictatorship. In 2010 she condemned former president and dictator Juan María Bordaberry for crimes of attack against the Constitution, forced disappearance of persons, and political murder. She was transferred to a civil court in 2013 by order of the Supreme Court of Justice, which caused a controversy regarding the possible reasons for this transfer, and generated various demonstrations of rejection by human rights organizations. She was appointed to the board of directors of the National Institute of Human Rights on 1 August 2017.

Biography Mariana Mota was born in Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay. Her first years were spent in Montevideo. Later she went to live in Paysandú with her parents and two older brothers, where she attended public school and high school. At age 18 she returned to reside in Montevideo, to enter the of the University of the Republic.

During her years as a law student she was a trade union activist, but not a political militant. She is considered to be a "humanist".

Action on cases of human rights violations As a criminal judge Mota participated in cases against military figures and civilians accused of crimes committed during the 1973–1984 civic-military dictatorship. She presided over more than 50 complaints based in the Criminal Court of First Instance of the 7th District.

On 9 February 2010, she pronounced sentence condemning former President Juan María Bordaberry as "co-author" of an attack against the Constitution, forced disappearance of persons, and political murder of eleven Uruguayan citizens because:

The rank of the top official of the President of the Republic places him as an official with sufficient hierarchy to (...) provide clarification and to prevent the commission of illicit offenses. In supporting her actions under international human rights law, the judge argued that reference to Law No. 18.831, known as the Expiry Law, was not relevant to this judgment. Regarding the crime of assault on the Constitution, Judge Mota condemned Bordaberry for leading the 1973 coup d'état by dissolving the Parliament through Decree 464/973, a decision that "the Constitution in no way enabled him to take," according to Mota's ruling.

In the same way the Chambers were dissolved, the Parliament was suppressed and with it the legislative function, thus cutting off one of the basic pillars of the democratic system: the most important, the separation of powers.

During her time as a criminal judge, she had a difficult relationship with the Ministry of Defense, due to what she considered insufficient cooperation with the cases she was investigating. On 27 September 2012 she went to Infantry Battalion No. 13 accompanied by witnesses, to perform a visual inspection of the Army's Material and Armament Service. During the visit, she was prevented from taking photos by a supposed order of Minister Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro. Mota declared that the ministerial authorities were in contempt; finally through an agreement she managed to access the site to take photographs. The plane's black boxes, which were found, did not contain the cabin recordings.

After this finding, the judge sent a letter to the Ministry of Defense to resume the search with the participation of Bado, since she considered that the elements found did not allow a complete expert opinion. The defense authorities considered that there were enough elements to determine the causes of the incident. Finally, it was ordered to resume the search in December 2013, although the judge did not obtain new information to continue the investigation until the moment of being transferred to another court, being removed from this and other cases. Relatives of the crew members continued with the criminal case against the company Air Class, which was finally filed with the 2nd Court of Appeals in 2015.

Transfer On 13 February 2013, the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) informed Mota of its decision to transfer her to a civil court. This communication took Mota by surprise, since she, according to her words, "neither had requested the transfer nor had committed any fault."

The transfer of Mariana Mota was appealed through an administrative request to the SCJ, arguing that the explanations given were insufficient and that the formal measures established for a transfer were not taken correctly. The SCJ replied that although some procedural formalities were not complied with, this did not invalidate the transfer. Subsequently, Mota filed an appeal for annulment before the for "misuse of power". This was dismissed in a 2015 judgment.

Appointment to the directorate of the National Institute of Human Rights Mariana Mota was nominated as a candidate to join the board of directors of the National Institute of Human Rights for Mothers and Relatives of Disappeared Detainees, with the support of the PIT-CNT and feminist and human rights organizations. The name of the judge was proposed by the Broad Front in the General Assembly of the Legislature, where she was finally elected along with Wilder Tyler, Mariana Blengio, María Josefina Plá, and on 1 August 2017.