The Principle of Opportunity as a Mechanism for Extinguishing the Exercise of Public Criminal Action

Abstract

Since the entry into force of the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador (2008), Ecuador becomes a constitutional State of rights and justice, which brings the State into a neo-constitutionalist current, where criminal guarantees obligate the respect and guarantee of constitutional rights, especially within the penal system. In this sense, article 195 of the constitutional charter contemplates the principles that regulate the powers of the State Attorney General's Office as head of public criminal action, these principles are: minimum intervention and the principle of opportunity. This research specifically analyzes the application of the principle of opportunity in Ecuador, as a means to achieve the long-awaited criminal guarantee. Which generates the main finding that, despite being expressly contained in the constitutional charter and current legislation, this principle is not applied correctly or in the amount that should be done according to the different actions investigated by the Attorney General's Office. State.