In world first, Mexican voters to elect all judges
Mexico is set to become the world's only country to let voters elect all of their judges, sparking sharp disagreement about whether the reforms will diminish or strengthen criminal influence over the courts.
The government says the unprecedented popular vote for judges and magistrates at all levels -- including the Supreme Court -- is needed to address rampant corruption and impunity.
Critics argue it will undermine the judiciary's independence and warn the participation of controversial candidates -- such as a former lawyer for notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman -- means it is doomed to backfire.
On Sunday, voters will choose several thousand federal, district and local judges and magistrates. Another election for the remainder will be held in 2027.
Not just anybody can run for one of these jobs. Candidates must have a law degree, experience in legal affairs, what is termed "a good reputation," and no criminal record.
Opponents, including judicial workers, have held a series of mass street protests in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the reforms.
"Justice is not something you vote for" and it needs people with experience and specialized knowledge, said Olimpia Rojas Luviano, a 28-year-old lawyer.
But Maria del Rocio Morales, a judge who is standing to be a magistrate in the capital, said she was happy to take part.
"For the good of my city and my country, I will do it," she said.
President Claudia Sheinbaum has played down signs that many voters are unlikely to take part in the vote .
"People are very intelligent and know who they are going to vote for," the veteran left-winger said.
According to surveys by the El Universal and El Pais newspapers, only half of voters know the election date, and only four out of 10 are certain they will participate.
- 'Rotten' judiciary -
While judicial elections are not new -- the United States and Bolivia, for instance, allow voters to pick some judges -- Mexico will be the only nation to elect them at all levels.
The reform was championed by Sheinbaum's predecessor and mentor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who criticized the judicial system as "rotten," corrupt and serving the interests of the political and economic elite.
Mexico has a long history of human rights violations that remain unpunished, including the disappearance of 43 students from a teacher training college in 2014, allegedly at the hands of drug traffickers and corrupt authorities.
Despite dozens of arrests, there have been no convictions.
Mexico's criminal justice system "is profoundly ineffective at ensuring accountability for criminal violence and abuses by security forces," according to New York-based Human Right Watch.
Lopez Obrador frequently clashed with the judiciary, in particular the Supreme Court, which impeded some of his policies.
Sheinbaum, who replaced him in October, is a staunch supporter of the sweeping changes. Her opponents say they will eliminate democratic checks and balances.
Sheinbaum's ruling party already dominates both houses of Congress.
Opponents warn that elected judges could be more vulnerable to pressure from criminals, in a country where powerful drug cartels regularly use bribery and intimidation to influence officials.
Rights group Defensorxs has identified around 20 candidates it considers "high risk" for reasons including allegations of cartel links, corruption and sexual abuse, even though one of the requirements for running is to have no criminal record.
These people include Silvia Delgado, a former lawyer for "El Chapo," the Sinaloa cartel co-founder imprisoned in the United States.
Defensorxs describes her as a candidate who "defends alleged drug traffickers."
Delgado, who is standing to be a judge in the northern state of Chihuahua, told AFP: "Every person has the right to counsel."
Another controversial candidate seeking to be a district judge in the northern state of Durango served prison time in the United States for drug crimes, according to Defensorxs.
A major concern for voters is the complexity of a vote that will require people in Mexico City to mark nine ballots for local and federal judges.
"I think even the people who devised it don't know how to do it," said Rojas Luviano.
jla-dr/dw
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
River group, city meet to talk about access to the Black River
Jun. 19—WATERTOWN — A group of river activists and the city have started working out their longtime differences regarding the group's concerns about access to the Black River. Members of New York Rivers United, a group of whitewater advocates and rafting enthusiasts, met with city officials last Friday to talk about a series of projects that they would like to see completed to give them more river access. The hour-long Zoom meeting "was cordial and productive," said New York Rivers United member Alex Barham, adding that he was satisfied with its outcome. City Manager Eric Wagenaar said he thought it "was a good meeting." For more than a decade, the group and the city were at odds over what is known as the Route 3 Wave, once a popular whitewater kayaking course that was a site of a world championship that drew thousands of spectators. A large rock moved in its way and damaged the course. But the city never corrected the issue. According to Rivers United, the repairs were required by a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license for the city's Marble Street hydroelectric plant. The city has now agreed to look at the Route 3 Wave. Rivers United members and city officials will go to the site in August when river levels are down to see what can be done to fix the problem, Barham said. The city also has agreed to repair some stairs to the river and complete other repairs along the river near Newell Street, Wagenaar said. "We have to work on some things with them," Wagenaar said. In December, Rivers United, which advocates for accessibility to the river, filed a complaint with FERC about the city never correcting the Route 3 Wave problem. The group also has claimed that the city violated the hydro plant's FERC license on a daily basis since it was renewed in 1995. The river group conducted an audit of the facility that found numerous alleged violations. That prompted the state Department of Environmental Conservation to urge FERC to conduct a noncompliance investigation into the plant. In May, a six-member team from the DEC completed an on-site inspection of the hydro plant. Wagenaar said Wednesday that the DEC will be back next week for a follow-up visit. FERC also required the city to submit a report about the group's complaints about the hydro plant. The city submitted the report last Friday. "They're looking at it," he said, adding that he doesn't know when FERC will complete its response. Rivers United members Steve Massaro and Barham and Dick McDonald of the state Department of Environmental Conservation attended the meeting with the city. City Engineer Tom Compo, hydro plant employee Jeffrey Hammond, Michael A. Lumbis, the city's planning and community development director, and Wagenaar were among the city officials at the meeting. In 1995, the river group, the DEC and FERC negotiated the terms of the current license, designed to mitigate significant commercial, environmental and recreational impacts identified during the relicensing process. Under the 1995 agreement, an account was set up to distribute funding for river accessibility projects. The city and Rivers United were at loggerheads over who decided how to spend that money. The group claimed the city spent about $60,000 from that account, but the DEC and Rivers United never approved it. About $225,000 remains in the account.
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
NYC Democratic mayoral primary enters home stretch
NEW YORK (PIX11)– For the first time since he was detained by immigration officials earlier this week, Comptroller and candidate for mayor Brad Lander was back at immigration court to try and help immigrants from being deported. After observing more detentions by ICE, a clearly frustrated Lander said more needs to be done to quote gum up the works. 'It's time for people to stand up and say we are not going to allow the deportation machine without due process,' Lander said. 'We are going to have to, in the tradition of nonviolent protest, find more and better ways not to allow our democracy to be eroded.' More Local News Lander is also calling on former governor Andrew Cuomo to instruct his Super PAC to back down from repeated attack against Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani said he has been in touch with the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force after repeated Islamophobic threats called into his government office, including a recent car bomb threat. 'If you design mailers that artificially lengthen and darken my beard, if you blanket the airwaves with language of me being a radical, if you put me in [traditional Islamic clothing] instead of a suit, it is not a surprise to see the threats that come,' Mamdani said. Mamdani was outside the NYC Campaign Finance Board, where he was petitioning for a last-minute rule change that would allow him to spend more donor money, due to the constant barrage of Cuomo Super PAC ads. He said Cuomo is trying to 'buy the election.' A spokeswoman for the Cuomo campaign says the former governor cannot legally direct a Super PAC to do anything. She said Momani is simply trying to change the subject from a discussion of antisemitism: 'Mr. Mamdani has a super PAC and a fringe party financially supporting his candidacy and smearing Governor Cuomo, and has been, potentially illegally, coordinating with other candidates to attack Governor Cuomo. This latest attempt to change the subject from Mr. Mamdani's inability to clearly and unequivocally condemn the use of the repugnant phrase 'globalize the intifada' are as transparent as they are desperate.' Meanwhile, the former governor was endorsed by the Daily News on Friday, and influential South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn was also endorsed. Finally, late Friday, City Council Speaker and candidate for Mayor Adrienne Adams said she would not cross-endorse, as Mamdani and Lander have done. She said she is still committed to defeating Cuomo and encouraged her supporters to rank the Working Families Party slate, which includes Lander and Mamdani. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Supreme Court delivers another blow to California's imperiled emissions standards
The Supreme Court reinstated legal challenges by oil and gas companies Friday to California's strict emissions standards for motor vehicles, standards that the Trump administration is likely to halt on its own in the near future. Federal law allows California to set tighter limits on auto emissions than the national standard, and since 1990 has allowed other states to adopt California's rules, an option taken by 17 states and the District of Columbia. But fuel companies affected by the increasing use of electric vehicles contend the state's standards are too restrictive and have sued to overturn them. Lower federal courts ruled that companies had failed to show they were being harmed by the standards, and therefore lacked legal standing to sue, because electric car sales are increasing for other reasons. The Supreme Court disagreed in a 7-2 decision. 'The whole point of the regulations is to increase the number of electric vehicles in the new automobile market beyond what consumers would otherwise demand,' Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the majority opinion. 'The government generally may not target a business or industry through stringent and allegedly unlawful regulation, and then evade the resulting lawsuits by claiming that the targets of its regulation should be locked out of court.' But dissenting Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said lawyers in the case had told the court that the Environmental Protection Agency, under President Donald Trump, was about to withdraw its approval of California's waiver from nationwide standards, 'which will put an end to California's emissions program.' The EPA took that action during Trump's first administration, which was reversed under President Joe Biden. Meanwhile, legislation passed by the Republican-controlled Congress and signed by Trump would prevent California from banning sales of new gasoline-powered vehicles in 2035, a law the state has challenged in court. The Supreme Court 'is already viewed by many as being overly sympathetic to corporate interests,' and Friday's ruling 'will no doubt aid future attempts by the fuel industry to attack the Clean Air Act,' said Jackson, a Biden appointee. In a separate dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the court should have returned the case to a lower court to await the EPA's action. Kavanaugh, however, said fuel companies affected by California's current standards could seek to prove in court that they were arbitrary and unlawful. His opinion was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Elena Kagan. Liane Randolph, chair of the California Air Resources Board, said it was not a full-scale rejection of the state's emissions standards. 'This ruling does not change California's Advanced Clean Cars rulemaking, nor does it dispute what data has shown to be true: vehicle emissions are a huge source of pollution with grave health impacts, consumer adoption of zero emission vehicles continues to rise, and global auto manufacturers are committed to an electric future,' she said in a statement. But attorney Brett Skorup of the libertarian Cato Institute said the ruling was 'a welcome rebuke to judicial gatekeeping' and affirmed that 'predictable economic harms from government regulation' entitle 'injured parties (to) have their day in court.' The case is Diamond Alternative Energy v. EPA, No. 24-7.
