Mexico judicial elections: the government calls for its essential reform. Critics say it’s a farce

Mexico – Hyper democracy or power game to partisans?

This is the question that the Mexicans go to the polls on Sunday to elect the country’s judges in a radical reshaping of the structure of the power of the nation.

At a time when many observers fear that President Trump will target judicial independence in the United States, the legislators here have chosen to reorganize the judiciary in a historical reform -and extremely divisor -.

Mexico, which has never voted before for judges, will become the first country to have an elected judicial system.

The unprecedented vote generated both general controversy and deep confusion while thousands of candidates are competing for nearly 900 federal judicial locations,, including the nine of the Supreme Court.

Surveys have shown that many Mexicans are both skeptical and apathical – and do not know who promote among the wide range of contenders for most unknown, some having links with organized crime. At least one candidate served a duration in an American prison for the smuggling of methamphetamine, and several others represented drug traffickers, including a potential judge who was part of the Guzmán de la ankle legal team

“I participated in the elections all my life, but it will be the first time that I will not vote,” said Marcelo Díaz, 68, retired in the capital. “I have no idea who are the candidates, nor what they represent.”

Supporters of the elections, led by President Claudia Sheinbaum, salute the transition as a blow against impunity. Critics denounce the move as the last stage of Mexico towards the authoritarian regime in a country where the Bloc Morena de Sheinbaum dominates at the federal and state level.

Supporters have set up posters and join the main square to promote the vote for candidates before the judicial elections. Wednesday May 28, 2025 in Mexico City.

More than half of the more than 1,500 positions of federal judge and federal magistrate will be won on Sunday, and the rest in 2027. Voters in 19 states will choose nearly 2,000 regional judges.

Sheinbaum and his allies call the reshuffle a necessary makeover of a ossified system torn apart by corruption and nepotism.

As part of the current system, said the president, the judges are regularly crime figures organized by spring, tax cheaters and other wealthy criminals, while impunity for murder and other crimes is the norm. The detention of bad suspects can flow for years without trial.

“Now they accuse us of being authoritarian,” said Sheinbaum recently, rejecting criticism from the elections. “How can it be authoritarian if the people decide?”

While granting gaps in the current judicial power, the opponents qualify the elections to move to a single party. Even if the ballot is officially non -supporter, many provide that candidates close to the ruling party will dominate. Critics predict the weakening of controls and balances.

“The fact that the judicial system does not work because it should work and has not worked, is obvious,” wrote the columnist Denise Maerker in the Milenio press briefing of Mexico. “Corruption reigns and the rich and most powerful triumph. But it is not a remedy – it is a demolition. ”

Previously, expert panels have appointed judges after a screening process that involved judicial administrators, exams and assessments. The president appointed judges of the Supreme Court,, With the consent of the Senate.

In the new system, qualifications are rudimentary. Among other requirements, budding lawyers must have law diplomas, have at least five years of experience in legal work and certifying their “good reputation” and the lack of criminal convictions.

Applicants for judicial posts are selected by the lottery in the Senate in Mexico City on January 30. The lottery determines which means that the elections are judges.

(Eduardo Verdugo / Associated Press)

Even the pillars of the ruling parties have conceded serious gaps in the new system.

Last month, senator Gerardo Fernández Noroña called for the abolition of at least 20 candidates identified as having possible links with organized crime. The electoral commission said it was too late to withdraw them from the ballot.

Among the candidates of the state of Chihuahua is Silvia Rocío Delgado, a unique lawyer for the famous “El Chapo” Guzmán, is now serving perpetuity in the United States for drug trafficking, murder and other crimes.

“There should be no stigmatization” for represented El Chapo, said Delgado at Univisión Noticias. “If people vote for me, I will ask for the impartiality of justice for both parties.”

Léopoldo Javier Chávez Vargas is looking for an office in the northwest state of Durango. He admitted to having served almost six years in police custody for methamphetamine trafficking.

“I never presented myself as the perfect candidate,” said Chávez in a Facebook video. But, he added: “I will be a judge who will listen carefully to your stories.”

The tentacles of organized crime deeply reach the political and judicial order of Mexico. Judges are often targets.

Since 2012, at least 17 Mexican judges and six clerks have been killed as part of their work, according to the international crisis group, a research organization based in Brussels.

“There is no doubt that a fully independent competent judicial system is essential if the wave of violence in Mexico should end,” concluded the group in a report on the judicial elections in Mexico.

Sheinbaum defended the revamped process, saying that only “a very small percentage” of candidates seem unskilled.

Many candidates have already been judges or clerks. The 64 competitors for nine seats at the Supreme Court include three seated judges, Lenia Batres Guadarrama, Yasmin Esquivel and Loretta Ortiz.

Among the candidates for lower judicial posts, there are Delia Quiroa, 42, who spent years providing legal advice to families seeking to retrace the fate of “missing” parents. Quiroa founded a research group for the missing after his brother was kidnapped in 2014. He was never seen again.

“Many people say that we can do nothing because of the threats of organized crime, or we do not have qualified people,” said Quiroa, who presents himself in the northwest of the state of Sinaloa, an epicenter of the cartel’s violence. “I saw the problems in court. It’s time to ask for a change. “

While generating political controversies, Sunday’s vote has not triggered noisy street rallies that generally accompany the Mexican ballot. A large part of the campaign took place on social networks, where potential judges with limited public profiles beat in good faith.

Voting bulletins do not designate political affiliations; Political parties are forbidden to finance the candidates. Instead, candidates must rely on self -financing, which tends to promote the rich.

A recent survey showed that almost half of the Mexicans did not even know that this vote was happening.

Carlos Odriozola, on the right, candidate for the judge of the Supreme Court, talks to a citizen during a campaign event on Wednesday in Mexico.

And those who go out to vote will have to tackle a co -coded assembly, convoluted coded voting bulletins listing hundreds of names, all with corresponding numbers. At the top of each ballot are circles in which voters must fill the figures associated with their favorite candidates. A common joke here is that learning the mechanics of the vote can be more difficult than deciding for those voting.

“The truth is that I don’t understand a little how we have to vote,” said Rosa María Castro, 54, housewife in Mexico City. “Everything seems very complicated.”

The elections are an original idea of ​​former President Andrès Manuel López Obrador – who, like Trump, has often faced himself with the judiciary, complaining that non -elected judges counteract his aspirations for a “transformation” of Mexican society.

In 2024, towards the end of his six years, López Obrador proposed to modify the Constitution to demand the judicial elections. Indignant legal employees organized disturbing street demonstrations, but in vain. The Congress dominated by Morena has accelerated constitutional changes.

Sunday’s vote will be the culmination of the former president’s vision for a popular court. It is a leap into the unknown for a country where it is so long ago, a long time ago, has lost confidence in the concept of justice.

“The success of President Sheinbaum’s plans to dismantle criminal organizations and more effectively pursue violent crimes will be based on a competent and impartial judicial system,” wrote the international crisis group. “For the moment, however, opinions remain divided as to whether the great experience of the country in direct election of judges will remedy long -standing defects – or simply to the overhaul and possibly to exacerbate them.”

McDonnell and Linthicum are staff editors, Sánchez Vidal, a special correspondent.