President Milei Officializes Appointment of Two Judges to Federal Chamber

President Javier Milei has officialized the appointments of Pablo Bertuzzi and Pablo Yadarola as judges for Sala I of the National Court of Appeals in Criminal and Correctional Federal matters. The appointments were formalized via decrees 848/2026 and 847/2026, signed by the President and Justice Minister Juan Bautista Mahiques. The two judges are scheduled to be sworn in on Thursday, September 3, at Comodoro Py. This tribunal is considered strategic as it will decide the fate of high profile political cases, including the $LIBRA cause, the VIP Vaccination scandal, the YPF emptying investigation, and an IMF agreement case involving current Economy Minister Luis Caputo. Both candidates were approved by the Senate on August 27. Yadarola received unanimous support with 66 votes, while Bertuzzi received 44 votes. The process to reach these appointments was complex. A center right source notes that both judges benefited from a revaluation of personal interviews in the Council of the Magistracy, which significantly improved their rankings in the order of merit. Bertuzzi previously arrived at the chamber in 2018 via a transfer under Mauricio Macri, a mechanism later reviewed by the Supreme Court. Yadarola is known for his connection to Minister Mahiques and his involvement in the 2022 Lago Escondido trip, an event for which he was eventually acquitted. A center left source highlights the political tension surrounding the vote, noting that the Peronist bloc voted in favor of both candidates despite historical opposition to Bertuzzi and the controversy over the Lago Escondido trip. This source frames the event as an exposure of internal tension within Peronism as the party moderates its confrontation with the judiciary.