Chapo's ex-lawyer elected Mexican judge
Silvia Delgado, 51, was a member of Guzman's legal team in Ciudad Juarez, where the Sinaloa cartel co-founder was detained before being extradited to the United States in 2017.
She was elected a judge in the crime-plagued border city of Ciudad Juarez, results from the June 1 election showed.
She received the second-highest vote of the five women who were elected to the bench in northern Chihuahua state, alongside five male judges.
Delgado's candidacy was one of the most controversial in the election, which will make Mexico the world's only country to choose all of its judges and magistrates by popular vote.
She argued that her defense of Guzman did not make her a criminal.
"Every person has the right to counsel," she said, talking up her experience to voters.
She was one of around 20 candidates identified by the rights group Defensorxs as "high-risk" for the legitimacy of the judiciary due to allegations of cartel links, corruption and sexual abuse.
The Sinaloa cartel was one of six Mexican gangs designated terrorist organizations in February by US President Donald Trump.
Mexicans were called on to elect 881 federal judges, including nine members of the Supreme Court, as well as hundreds of local judges and magistrates.
An election for the remainder of the judiciary will be held in 2027.
Critics have warned that asking citizens to elect judges will erode democratic checks and balances and leave judges more vulnerable to criminal influence.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
5 hours ago
- Euronews
Why was the US TikTok ban extended again?
The pending ban on the popular social media app TikTok will likely be extended on Thursday. US President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he would 'probably' extend the TikTok ban for a third time but he would need approval from China's President Xi Jinping to do so. The Supreme Court uphelda decision in January that forces ByteDance, the Chinese company behind TikTok, to either sell the app to an American buyer or face a nationwide ban. June 19th was the new date that the ban was supposed to take effect. Euronews Next takes a look at what could be next for the app and evaluates whether the extension is a sign that the national security concerns around TikTok have changed AND if it is a geopolitical move by Trump It's not a surprise that Trump is likely to extend the TikTok ban because he believes it's being used in further negotiations with China, said Darío García de Viedma, fellow of technical and digital policy at the think tank the Elcano Royal Institute in Spain. 'I don't see a scenario in which both [Xi and Trump's] interests are met with a purchase or a ban,' García de Viedma told Euronews Next. 'It would have to be part of a broader negotiation, where one concedes TikTok and the other concedes something else, like tariffs or export control'. Last week, Trump claimed the US and China agreed to a new trade relationship where the US would receive magnets and rare earth minerals in exchange for allowing Chinese students to enrol in American colleges and universities. The deal also brought their respective tariffs down to 55 per cent imposed by the US on Chinese products and 10 per cent imposed by China on American products. Despite their relationship appearing to have calmed, it still isn't the right time to force a TikTok sale, said García de Viedma. It also wouldn't be the first time that a TikTok ban is be used to gain political leverage over China, he added. Indian President Narendra Modi banned TikTok along with 58 Chinese apps in 2020 after border skirmishes with China. The app was gone overnight but accounts and old videos are still online, the BBC reported. García de Viedma said Indian policy experts he has spoken to, the move is 'populist' to show that '[Modi] is taking care of the conflict with China and that this is a very big move towards Indian sovereignty'. 'President Trump is doing the opposite,' García de Viedma said.. 'His discourse right now is, I'm going to save TikTok. [Trump] is saying the opposite to Modi, but it's actually the same trend, using it as a sovereignty discourse.' Jan Penfrat, senior policy advisor with European Digital Rights, said he wouldn't be surprised if a movement to ban all Chinese apps like Modi comes up later. 'I wouldn't be surprised if later in the administration, [there is] an idea to basically just say 'hey let's just ban all Chinese things that are kind of in competition with [what] America offers,' Penfrat said. The main argument from the Republican Party that passed the bill to divest TikTok is that ByteDance could be compelled to send US data to the Chinese government if they requested it. This is largely a 'theoretical concern' because there are opposing views from officials about whether there have been TikTok data transfers to the Chinese government, García de Viedma said. But data privacy concerns haven't resonated with TikTok creators, who have stayed on the platform despite conflicting stories from officials, he added. The US also has a similar data transfer law to China called the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act (CLOUD). Passed during Trump's first mandate, the US government can subpoena American technology companies for data stored on any server in the world to help them investigate serious crimes. Penfrat and García de Viedma argue that TikTok has just as many security risks as other social media apps due to how they share and store data. 'All of these social media apps are a security risk if you work in a sensitive area because they all do massive data collection through the device that they're installed on,' Penfrat said. 'And this has nothing to do with the fact that TikTok comes from China and everything to do with the business model that the company has'. This business model involves collecting personal data and selling it to advertisers to feed it into recommender systems, Penfrat said, referring to algorithms. If a US or Chinese government body wants data, they don't have to compel the social media companies to hand it over - they can just participate in real-time bidding for personal data on the targeted advertising market and bypass the social media companies entirely, he added. 'It's an incredibly messy industry which leads to hundreds of parties eventually having access to personal data and it's totally out of control in a way,' Penfrat said. 'Eventually, government agencies like ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)in the US have started buying personal data on the commercial market because they can get all the information they want without needing a warrant'. It's also not clear if and when the sale goes through, whether ByteDance would be forced to sell the TikTok algorithm or just its US-based operations, according to García de Viedma. If the US only buys the operations and not the algorithms, it could change what content is seen or recommended for users in Europe, said García de Viedma. This could then lead to the possible 'implosion' of the so-called 'TikTok economy' that is moving money mostly from the United States. 'In a matter of days, the big TikTok community could move to another platform and this would have a big impact on all the intellectual movements and culture and politics that is created on TikTok,' he said. But that could be what Trump wants by creating this uncertainty about the ban, García de Viedma said, by forcing creators to move to other platforms like Instagram to keep their income streams alive. By doing this, Trump could be using a 'midterm strategy to just kill TikTok from its user base and to reduce its impact and the price,' he said. The European Commission has notified Chinese online marketplace AliExpress that it is in breach of the bloc's online platform rules for not taking enough measures to counter illegal products. Preliminary results of its investigation into the platform's alleged breaches the Digital Services Act (DSA) – EU rules that oblige online platforms to counter illegal content and products online – were sent to AliExpress on Tuesday. The Commission's began an investigation in March 2024 focussing on several areas including risk mitigation, content moderation and the internal complaint handling mechanism, as well as transparency of advertising and recommender systems. The Commission's preliminary findings suggest that AliExpress devotes limited resources to moderation systems designed to avoid the dissemination of illegal products, underplaying risks. 'The company also fails to appropriately enforce its penalty policy concerning traders that repeatedly post illegal content, and its content moderation systems show systemic failures, making the systems less effective and allowing manipulation by malicious traders,' the Commission's statement said. The platform now has time to react to the findings before the Commission decides on next steps. If the EU executive confirms the breach in a final decision, it could impose a fine of up to 6% of the company's global turnover. At the same time, the Commission accepted voluntary commitments made by the platform on some of the other grievances of the probe and made them binding. The commitments related to the notice and action mechanism, transparency of advertising and data access for researchers as well as the platform's systems to monitor and detect illegal products, such as medicines, food supplements and others which could affect users' health and minors' well-being. By making the commitments binding, the Commission closed these parts of the investigation. The AliExpress case is the second most advanced DSA probe since the platform rules entered into force late 2023. The Commission also sent preliminary findings to X related to risk management, content moderation and dark patterns. It has further investigations pending into platforms including Facebook and Instagram. Under the DSA, companies with more than 45 million users are considered Very Large Online Platforms (VLOP) meaning that they face stricter rules to fight illegal and harmful content and counterfeit products on their platforms.
Fashion Network
13 hours ago
- Fashion Network
Trump says EU not offering fair trade deal, Japan being 'tough' too
White House officials said U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett also remained in Canada and would be meeting their counterparts. They said Trump met informally with all G7 members, but had not seen the leaders of India, Australia or Mexico, who were also slated to meet him in Canada this week. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum tweeted later in the day that she had a "very good" phone call with Trump on Tuesday and they agreed to work together to reach a deal on "diverse topics." The White House later confirmed the call. "We're talking, but I don't feel that they're offering a fair deal yet," Trump told reporters, referring to the European Union. "They're either going to make a good deal or they'll just pay whatever we say they have to pay." European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters on the sidelines of the G7 summit that the objective was still to reach a deal before higher reciprocal tariffs go into effect on July 9 after a 90-day pause. "It's complex but we are advancing, that is good, and I push hard to pick up more speed, so we are mixed in the negotiations, and we will see what the end brings," she said. Greta Peisch, a trade lawyer at Wiley Rein in Washington, said Trump's departure was disappointing for trading partners since he was leading trade policy and it was sometimes unclear what tradeoffs he was willing to make. "If they don't have a clear view of what that is ... that can obviously slow things down and make it more difficult to conclude the negotiations," she said. Trump also said there was a chance of a trade deal between Washington and Japan. "They're tough, the Japanese are tough, but ultimately you have to understand we're just going to send a letter saying 'this is what you're going to pay, otherwise you don't have to do business with us'. But there's a chance," he said. Trump also said pharmaceutical tariffs were coming very soon, repeating a threat he has made repeatedly to impose import taxes on medical goods in a bid to force drug makers to rebase production to the U.S. "We're going to be doing pharmaceuticals very soon. That's going to bring all the companies back into America," he said, referring to an ongoing Commerce Department investigation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. "It's going to bring most of them back into, at least partially back in." Matthew Goodman, a former senior U.S. official and fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said it was always a "stretch goal" for Trump to reach any deals at the G7 summit beyond finalizing the terms of a limited deal with Britain. The U.S.-UK deal, announced by Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Canada, reaffirmed quotas and tariff rates on British automobiles and eliminated tariffs on the U.K. aerospace sector, but the issue of steel and aluminum remained unresolved. Over a dozen other major U.S. trading partners are still in talks to work out agreements with Trump before the three-month hiatus on his sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs expires in about three weeks. "I think July 9 is the real deadline. That's when the 90-day pause ends, and I suspect that Trump and his team are trying to use that as maximum pressure to get countries to give more ground," Goodman said. Trump has signaled he could extend the deadline for countries that engaged in negotiations, but repeated his threat to send letters to other countries that simply spell out the U.S. tariffs they would be facing.
Fashion Network
13 hours ago
- Fashion Network
Trump says EU not offering fair trade deal, Japan being 'tough' too
White House officials said U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett also remained in Canada and would be meeting their counterparts. They said Trump met informally with all G7 members, but had not seen the leaders of India, Australia or Mexico, who were also slated to meet him in Canada this week. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum tweeted later in the day that she had a "very good" phone call with Trump on Tuesday and they agreed to work together to reach a deal on "diverse topics." The White House later confirmed the call. "We're talking, but I don't feel that they're offering a fair deal yet," Trump told reporters, referring to the European Union. "They're either going to make a good deal or they'll just pay whatever we say they have to pay." European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters on the sidelines of the G7 summit that the objective was still to reach a deal before higher reciprocal tariffs go into effect on July 9 after a 90-day pause. "It's complex but we are advancing, that is good, and I push hard to pick up more speed, so we are mixed in the negotiations, and we will see what the end brings," she said. Greta Peisch, a trade lawyer at Wiley Rein in Washington, said Trump's departure was disappointing for trading partners since he was leading trade policy and it was sometimes unclear what tradeoffs he was willing to make. "If they don't have a clear view of what that is ... that can obviously slow things down and make it more difficult to conclude the negotiations," she said. Trump also said there was a chance of a trade deal between Washington and Japan. "They're tough, the Japanese are tough, but ultimately you have to understand we're just going to send a letter saying 'this is what you're going to pay, otherwise you don't have to do business with us'. But there's a chance," he said. Trump also said pharmaceutical tariffs were coming very soon, repeating a threat he has made repeatedly to impose import taxes on medical goods in a bid to force drug makers to rebase production to the U.S. "We're going to be doing pharmaceuticals very soon. That's going to bring all the companies back into America," he said, referring to an ongoing Commerce Department investigation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. "It's going to bring most of them back into, at least partially back in." Matthew Goodman, a former senior U.S. official and fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said it was always a "stretch goal" for Trump to reach any deals at the G7 summit beyond finalizing the terms of a limited deal with Britain. The U.S.-UK deal, announced by Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Canada, reaffirmed quotas and tariff rates on British automobiles and eliminated tariffs on the U.K. aerospace sector, but the issue of steel and aluminum remained unresolved. Over a dozen other major U.S. trading partners are still in talks to work out agreements with Trump before the three-month hiatus on his sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs expires in about three weeks. "I think July 9 is the real deadline. That's when the 90-day pause ends, and I suspect that Trump and his team are trying to use that as maximum pressure to get countries to give more ground," Goodman said. Trump has signaled he could extend the deadline for countries that engaged in negotiations, but repeated his threat to send letters to other countries that simply spell out the U.S. tariffs they would be facing.
