The Robe Races: Mexico Goes To the Polls To Remake Its Judiciary

Silvia Delgado García was handing out flyers recently at a flea market in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The 51-year-old was campaigning to become a judge in elections on June 1, when voters will choose thousands of judges and a new Supreme Court. 

Her legal experience exemplifies the concerns that many Mexicans and international observers harbor about the election. An attorney, she formerly represented Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the drug lord now serving a life sentence in the US, wrote the Associated Press. 

“Everyone has a right to an effective defense,” she said, referring to her decision to represent Guzmán. 

In the past, Mexico chose judges through civil service exams and based on their experience, the Washington Post reported. But former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a left-wing populist, opted to enact reforms last year, he said, to breathe fresh air into the judiciary, to “democratize” it. He accused Mexico’s courts of being controlled by an elite minority bent on hindering his efforts to transform the country.  

Current President Claudia Sheinbaum, an Obrador ally, has supported the changes, but she has signaled that she might attempt to disqualify Delgado and other candidates with questionable backgrounds from running, Mexico News Daily noted. 

Other concerns about the election’s mechanics have also emerged. In Durango, election officials have allowed 49 candidates to run for 49 open judicial seats – meaning voters don’t really have a choice on who presides over cases, wrote the Washington Office on Latin America. Election rules also prohibit candidates from accepting public or private campaign funds, so only those with sufficient personal funds can run. 

At the same time, once in office, the reform’s newly created Judicial Discipline Tribunal will have the power to supervise, review, and sanction their work and decisions, which the think tank says will place further pressure on judges to adhere to whatever political influences are dominant at the national level.  

These problems are why critics are warning about the future of judicial independence in the Latin American nation. “(Mexico) has designed an ingenious new system that seems democratic because it is based on elections but in fact may allow corrupt elites to dictate who wears judicial robes,” wrote Stephen Kinzer in the Boston Globe. 

One immediate consequence of the reform is that it will likely result in a great deal of disruption in the judiciary as new judges are introduced to the system during the coming two years, wrote the Wilson Center. “Indeed, the fact that many judges have either already resigned in frustration or are now frantically campaigning to retain their seats under great uncertainty means that there will be a large amount of turnover in the Mexican judiciary over the next two years,” it said. “This could lead to some very unfortunate outcomes, including the possible disruption of thousands of ongoing criminal cases, since proceedings will need to be restarted if the presiding judge loses his or her election.”   

Still, around 66 percent of Mexicans agree with the concept of electing judges, the Pew Research Center found. They reject the previous system that rewarded insiders and others whose political ties were often more decisive in their appointments than their competence or moral compass. 

Some of the candidates will likely inspire voters. Delia Quiroa, who is running for a judgeship in the state of Sinaloa, for instance, is an advocate for Mexicans whose relatives have disappeared due to the country’s epidemic of drug violence. Her brother has been missing since 2014. 

“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 told the Associated Press. “I’m going to go out and look for the missing people.”