Witnesses implicate Hernán Rivas in fake law degree case; trial begins

The trial against former senator Hernán Rivas for allegedly using a fraudulent law degree commenced with damaging testimony from prosecution witnesses. Key figures from the Universidad Sudamericana, including former authorities, stated they had no record or recollection of Rivas ever attending the institution or studying law there.

Among the witnesses was Óscar Rodríguez Kennedy, former dean of the Universidad Sudamericana, who admitted to signing Rivas's law degree and study certificate. However, Kennedy testified that he never met Rivas during the period the former senator supposedly studied at the university, and had never even seen him in photographs. This admission raises serious questions about the legitimacy of the documents presented.

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I never knew him as a student.

The court, presided over by Judge María Fernanda García de Zúñiga, admitted the testimony of the former rector of the university, Euclides Acevedo Candia, and the former head of the National Agency for the Evaluation and Accreditation of Higher Education (Aneaes), Óscar Paciello. Also admitted was the inclusion of a complaint filed by former parliamentary advisor Federico Campos López Moreira concerning Rivas's purported fake degree.

However, the court rejected the inclusion of testimonies from former senator Enrique Bacchetta and lawyer Óscar Paciello as prosecution witnesses. Rivas, affiliated with the ANR-cartista party, faces charges of immediate production of public documents of false content and use of public documents of false content. The prosecution aims to dismantle the validity of his legal credentials.

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I signed the degree and study certificate of the former senator, but I never met him.