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Associated Press
6 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Mexico's ruling party slated to control the newly elected Supreme Court, vote tallies show
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's ruling Morena party is poised to control the country's Supreme Court, vote tallies of the country's first judicial election indicated Tuesday, inching the party closer toward a grip on all three branches of government. Votes were still being counted for the majority of the 2,600 federal, state and local judge positions up for grabs in Sunday's elections, but results neared completion for the nine Supreme Court positions. The majority of the newly elected justices share strong ties and ideological alignments with the ruling party, shifting a once fairly balanced high court into the hands of the very party that overhauled the judicial system to elect judges for the first time. Experts warned the shift would undercut checks and balances in the Latin American nation, and would offer President Claudia Sheinbaum and her party an easier path to push through their agenda. 'We're watching as power is falling almost entirely into the hands of one party,' said Georgina De la Fuente, election specialist with the Mexican consulting firm Strategia Electoral. 'There isn't any balance of power.' Despite that, officials have continued to fiercely reject democratic concerns. A Morena-leaning court and an Indigenous justice With more than 98% of votes counted Tuesday night, most of those slated to head Mexico's highest court were members or former members of the Morena party. A number of them who were Supreme Court justices prior to the election were appointed by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum's mentor who pushed through the judicial overhaul last year. Others were advisers to the former president or the party or campaigned with politically aligned visions for the judiciary. Mexico's top electoral authority listed the nine likely winners in a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. Not all of the prospective winners were explicitly aligned with Morena. One standout was Hugo Aguilar Ortiz, an Indigenous lawyer from the southern state of Oaxaca. He has no clear party affiliation, though Sheinbaum said repeatedly she hoped to have an Indigenous judge on the court and said on Tuesday she was happy to see he would be. Political controversy Critics had feared that Morena would emerge from the election with control of the judiciary. The vote came after months of fierce debate, prompted when López Obrador and the party jammed through the reforms for judges to be elected instead of being appointed based on merits. The overhaul will notably limit the Supreme Court as a counterweight to the president. Judges, experts and the political opposition say the reform was an attempt to take advantage of high popularity levels to stack courts in favor of Morena. Sheinbaum and her mentor have insisted that electing judges will root out corruption in a system most Mexicans agree is broken. On Tuesday, Sheinbaum brushed off complaints by Mexico's opposition — which called for a boycott of the vote — that the Supreme Court was now unfairly stacked against them, saying 'they're the ones who decided not to participate in the election.' The elections were marred by low participation — about 13% — and confusion by voters who struggled to understand the new system, something opponents quickly latched onto as a failure. De la Fuente said Morena is likely to use its new lack of a counterweight in the high court to push through rounds of reforms, including reforms to Mexico's electoral systems, a proposal that has stirred controversy and was previously blocked by courts. Guadalupe Taddei Zavala, chief counselor of Mexico's electoral authority, on Tuesday rejected democratic concerns. 'I don't see any (constitutional) crisis after the election,' she said. Likely Supreme Court justices — Hugo Aguilar Ortiz was the big surprise from the election. The Indigenous lawyer led all vote-getters, including several sitting Supreme Court justices. He's known as a legal activist fighting for the rights of Indigenous Mexicans and has criticized corruption in the judiciary. — Lenia Batres was already a Supreme Court justice and was appointed by López Obrador. Previously a congresswoman, she's a member of Morena and an ally of Mexico's president. — Yasmín Esquivel is a Supreme Court justice who was appointed by López Obrador. She focused her campaign on modernizing the justice system and has pushed for gender equality. She was at the center of a 2022 controversy when she was accused of plagiarizing her thesis. She is considered an ally of the Morena party. — Loretta Ortiz is a justice on the Supreme Court who was appointed by López Obrador. She also served in Congress and resigned from Morena in 2018 in a show of independence as a judge. She's considered an ally of the party. — María Estela Ríos González is a lawyer who acted as legal adviser to López Obrador, first when he was mayor of Mexico City and later when he became president. She has a long history as a public servant and works in labor law and on a number of Indigenous issues. — Giovanni Figueroa Mejía is a lawyer from the Pacific coast state of Nayarit with a doctorate in constitutional law. He works as an academic at the Iberoamericana University in Mexico City. He's worked in human rights. While he holds no clear party affiliation, he supported the judicial overhaul, saying in an interview with his university that it 'was urgent and necessary in order to rebuild' the judiciary. — Irving Espinosa Betanzo is a magistrate on Mexico City's Supreme Court and has previously worked as a congressional adviser to Morena. He campaigned for the country's highest court on a platform of eliminating nepotism and corruption and pushing for human rights. — Arístides Rodrigo Guerrero García is a law professor pushing for social welfare with no experience as a judge, but who has worked as a public servant and has experience in both constitutional and parliamentary law. He gained traction in campaigns for a social media video of him claiming he's 'more prepared than a pork rind.' — Sara Irene Herrerías Guerra is a prosecutor specializing in human rights for Mexico's Attorney General's Office. She's worked on issues like gender equality, sexually transmitted infections and human trafficking. In 2023, she worked on the investigation of a fire in an immigration facility in the border city of Ciudad Juárez that killed 40 migrants.
Washington Post
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Mexicans will elect a new judiciary June 1. A look at some of the candidates
MEXICO CITY — What do an activist searching for missing Mexicans, an attorney who once represented a drug lord and a university professor trying out TikTok have in common? They are all campaigning for positions in Mexico's first judicial election on June 1. More than 2,600 contenders are vying for 881 positions from Mexico's Supreme Court down to district courts across the country. In 2027, another election is planned to elect 800 more judicial positions. Those on the June 1 ballots won a lottery after being screened by committees made up of people from the three branches of government. In order to qualify, they had to have a law degree, at least five years of professional practice, write an essay and collect letters of recommendation from friends and colleagues. Foreign governments, including the United States, and civil society organizations in Mexico criticized the change, warning that it would lead to a politicization of the judiciary and weaken its independence. Electing judges was former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's way to root out corruption. Make them accountable to the people, he said. The contentious reform's passage was among the last major acts of his presidency last September. Here are some of the candidates: Age: 41 What's she known for? She is among the hundreds of Mexicans searching for a missing relative, in her case a brother who disappeared in 2014. Candidate for: District judge in the western state of Sinaloa. Quiroa's experience has been different to most other candidates' in that she's more accustomed to being on the victims' side. After her brother disappeared in the northern border state of Tamaulipas, Quiroa began searching and eventually founded a collective called 'March 10' for the day he vanished. She quickly realized there was little legal help available to help searchers like herself, so she left her engineering career and began to study law while continuing her search. Quiroa gained notoriety a couple years ago when she proposed criminal groups consider a peace treaty to make it safer to search for the missing and she began selling a 'Searcher Barbie' to raise money for her group's activities. Late last year, she decided to return to her native Sinaloa state to compete to be a judge. Quiroa knows the risks of being a judge in the violent state, home to a powerful cartel of the same name, but she said that there need to be more judges who empathize with those searching for missing loved ones. 'If I become a judge, I'm not going to send legal documents and wait for authorities to answer when they feel like it,' Quiroa said. 'I'm going to go out and look for the missing people.' Age: 40 What's he known for? He went viral as 'Justice Pork Rinds.' Candidate for: Supreme Court. Until the campaign started, Guerrero wasn't well-known outside of Mexico's National Autonomous University, where he has taught classes for more than a decade. He had also led Mexico City's public records agency and worked at the capital's electoral court. But it was a homemade TikTok video that took off and launched Guerrero's campaign. In it, a student hands him a platter of a typical pork rind dish. Playing on the turn of phrase, he says he's 'more prepared than a pork rind' to be a Supreme Court justice, before rolling into his qualifications. Some grumps accused him of turning the race into a circus, but Guerrero said that his attempt at humor was far less harmful than having a corrupt justice on the highest court. 'You have to be colloquial sometimes in your use of language,' he said, accepting that he has tried to run a 'disruptive' campaign. If elected, Guerrero said that he would push to have the court hold hearings around Mexico to have more contact with people. Age: 51 What's she known for? She represented drug kingpin Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán in 2016. Candidate for: Criminal court judge in northern state of Chihuahua. Nine years ago, Silvia Delgado García was a member of Sinaloa cartel leader Guzmán's legal team when he was temporarily held in a prison in Ciudad Juarez before being extradited to the United States. He was eventually tried, convicted and sentenced to life in prison in the U.S. She's still marked by the case. Some critics of electing judges, and a human rights litigation group called Defensorxs, have labeled Delgado García 'high risk,' because 'she defends alleged drug traffickers.' The group has also identified 17 other candidates that way for being prosecuted, being members of investigated organizations, for alleged human rights violations and deals with criminal groups. 'Everyone has a right to an effective defense,' Delgado García said about her decision to represent Guzmán. She notes that she only helped at one hearing where the power went out, and her job was to visit him in the Ciudad Juarez prison where he was being held. 'If they give me a client of that magnitude, in terms of resume that's going to help me,' she said. As a candidate, she highlights that she has been a litigator for 18 years and has a passion for criminal law. 'I am a citizen who believes in the law, and I am extremely prepared to carry out the job and I aim to be impartial in the decisions I hand down.' Age: 30 What's he known for? He's a young lawyer at the Supreme Court who spends his free time campaigning in Mexico City's central square. Candidate for: An administrative judge for two of Mexico City's boroughs. Every afternoon, Monday to Thursday, Tapia Maltos finishes work at Mexico's Supreme Court where he has worked for 11 years and walks next door to Mexico City's sprawling central square. There, he sets up a small stand from which he hangs three papers on which he has handwritten his name, the position he seeks, his social platform handle and his ID number for the ballot. Even though he frequently goes unnoticed by the multitude of street vendors, tourists and workers crossing the square each day, Tapia Maltos dressed in white shirt, tie and dark slacks, occasionally draws the attention of those curious enough to stop and read his papers. Some then ask how they can vote. The simplicity of his campaign is its most noteworthy characteristic. 'I'm not trying to make a big production with videos, no dancing or anything like that ... Because what I'm trying to do is get to know people in an appropriate way.' He has worked for years behind the scenes inside the Supreme Court in preparing decisions. Now, thanks to the new judicial election, he says that he has found a way to achieve his dream of being a judge and bring new blood to a judiciary long criticized as corrupt. ____ Follow AP's coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at
Associated Press
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Mexicans will elect a new judiciary June 1. A look at some of the candidates
MEXICO CITY (AP) — What do an activist searching for missing Mexicans, an attorney who once represented a drug lord and a university professor trying out TikTok have in common? They are all campaigning for positions in Mexico's first judicial election on June 1. More than 2,600 contenders are vying for 881 positions from Mexico's Supreme Court down to district courts across the country. In 2027, another election is planned to elect 800 more judicial positions. Those on the June 1 ballots won a lottery after being screened by committees made up of people from the three branches of government. In order to qualify, they had to have a law degree, at least five years of professional practice, write an essay and collect letters of recommendation from friends and colleagues. Foreign governments, including the United States, and civil society organizations in Mexico criticized the change, warning that it would lead to a politicization of the judiciary and weaken its independence. Electing judges was former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's way to root out corruption. Make them accountable to the people, he said. The contentious reform's passage was among the last major acts of his presidency last September. Here are some of the candidates: Delia Quiroa Age: 41 What's she known for? She is among the hundreds of Mexicans searching for a missing relative, in her case a brother who disappeared in 2014. Candidate for: District judge in the western state of Sinaloa. Quiroa's experience has been different to most other candidates' in that she's more accustomed to being on the victims' side. After her brother disappeared in the northern border state of Tamaulipas, Quiroa began searching and eventually founded a collective called 'March 10' for the day he vanished. She quickly realized there was little legal help available to help searchers like herself, so she left her engineering career and began to study law while continuing her search. Quiroa gained notoriety a couple years ago when she proposed criminal groups consider a peace treaty to make it safer to search for the missing and she began selling a 'Searcher Barbie' to raise money for her group's activities. Late last year, she decided to return to her native Sinaloa state to compete to be a judge. Quiroa knows the risks of being a judge in the violent state, home to a powerful cartel of the same name, but she said that there need to be more judges who empathize with those searching for missing loved ones. 'If I become a judge, I'm not going to send legal documents and wait for authorities to answer when they feel like it,' Quiroa said. 'I'm going to go out and look for the missing people.' Arístides Rodrigo Guerrero Age: 40 What's he known for? He went viral as 'Justice Pork Rinds.' Candidate for: Supreme Court. Until the campaign started, Guerrero wasn't well-known outside of Mexico's National Autonomous University, where he has taught classes for more than a decade. He had also led Mexico City's public records agency and worked at the capital's electoral court. But it was a homemade TikTok video that took off and launched Guerrero's campaign. In it, a student hands him a platter of a typical pork rind dish. Playing on the turn of phrase, he says he's 'more prepared than a pork rind' to be a Supreme Court justice, before rolling into his qualifications. Some grumps accused him of turning the race into a circus, but Guerrero said that his attempt at humor was far less harmful than having a corrupt justice on the highest court. 'You have to be colloquial sometimes in your use of language,' he said, accepting that he has tried to run a 'disruptive' campaign. If elected, Guerrero said that he would push to have the court hold hearings around Mexico to have more contact with people. Silvia Delgado García Age: 51 What's she known for? She represented drug kingpin Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán in 2016. Candidate for: Criminal court judge in northern state of Chihuahua. Nine years ago, Silvia Delgado García was a member of Sinaloa cartel leader Guzmán's legal team when he was temporarily held in a prison in Ciudad Juarez before being extradited to the United States. He was eventually tried, convicted and sentenced to life in prison in the U.S. She's still marked by the case. Some critics of electing judges, and a human rights litigation group called Defensorxs, have labeled Delgado García 'high risk,' because 'she defends alleged drug traffickers.' The group has also identified 17 other candidates that way for being prosecuted, being members of investigated organizations, for alleged human rights violations and deals with criminal groups. 'Everyone has a right to an effective defense,' Delgado García said about her decision to represent Guzmán. She notes that she only helped at one hearing where the power went out, and her job was to visit him in the Ciudad Juarez prison where he was being held. 'If they give me a client of that magnitude, in terms of resume that's going to help me,' she said. As a candidate, she highlights that she has been a litigator for 18 years and has a passion for criminal law. 'I am a citizen who believes in the law, and I am extremely prepared to carry out the job and I aim to be impartial in the decisions I hand down.' Mauricio Tapia Maltos Age: 30 What's he known for? He's a young lawyer at the Supreme Court who spends his free time campaigning in Mexico City's central square. Candidate for: An administrative judge for two of Mexico City's boroughs. Every afternoon, Monday to Thursday, Tapia Maltos finishes work at Mexico's Supreme Court where he has worked for 11 years and walks next door to Mexico City's sprawling central square. There, he sets up a small stand from which he hangs three papers on which he has handwritten his name, the position he seeks, his social platform handle and his ID number for the ballot. Even though he frequently goes unnoticed by the multitude of street vendors, tourists and workers crossing the square each day, Tapia Maltos dressed in white shirt, tie and dark slacks, occasionally draws the attention of those curious enough to stop and read his papers. Some then ask how they can vote. The simplicity of his campaign is its most noteworthy characteristic. 'I'm not trying to make a big production with videos, no dancing or anything like that ... Because what I'm trying to do is get to know people in an appropriate way.' He has worked for years behind the scenes inside the Supreme Court in preparing decisions. Now, thanks to the new judicial election, he says that he has found a way to achieve his dream of being a judge and bring new blood to a judiciary long criticized as corrupt. ____ Follow AP's coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at
