Cartel leader El Chapo’s lawyer may become a judge in Mexico
She rises on stage with definite steps. The hair is gathered in a tight ponytail when she grabs the microphone and presents herself to the voters.
– I am an honest lawyer who respects both the victim and the accused, says Silvia Delgado.
A law student gets up at the campaign meeting in the border town of Ciudad Juárez who was The world’s most dangerous city When the Sinalo cartel, led by Joaquín « El Chapo » Guzmán, fought against the Juárezkartellen 15 years ago. The student wonders how the candidates gathered on stage view a judge’s independence.
– I assure you that I will be an independent judge, answers Silvia Delgado.
Another person wonders how the candidates will deal with the alleged false accusations that women focus on their former men.
– I won’t allow that. You must not use the legal system for personal revenge, says Silvia Delgado.
The law student, who asked the first question, nods contentedly.
– She seems sensible, says Diego Pérez, 21, to DN.
When he learns that she has been El Chapo’s defense lawyer, he is surprised.
– I didn’t know. How can she stand up?
After the controversial The legal reform was approved by Mexico’s congress last year, the Mexicans will on Sunday choose over 2,600 judges for the judiciary. The idea is that the judge’s choice should be arranged on the legal system as historically characterized by Corruption and nepotism. Judges have been able to appoint relatives and friends on high positions in the judiciary and defense lawyers have succeeded in gaining influence thanks to political connections, rather than legal competence.
In order to clear the legal system from irregularities, the population should choose from judges to the Supreme Court to judges at local level. The only thing required by the local judges who set up is that they have a legal degree, five years of experience as a lawyer and that the person was recommended by five colleagues or acquaintances. In other countries, a lawyer is required to work in the judiciary, which can take up to 15 years.
– It is true that the Mexican legal system is not good, but the question is whether it will be better now? The election opens up to many rogue candidates, says political scientist Salvador Salazar Gutiérrez, 49, at Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juárez.
He sees the judgment of judgment as A populist experiment from the Social Democratic More Party that has ruled Mexico for seven years.
– It is not just enough to ask the people to vote. If you really want citizens to change the legal system, you have to go deeper, says Salvador Salazar Gutiérrez.
He talks about the fundamentalist Christian sect La Luz del Mundo. Despite that The Sect’s leader is doomed To 16 years in prison in the United States for sexual abuse against children, five of the sect’s lawyers have been given green light to stand in the judgment. Several drug cartels are also trying to get their lawyers elected to judges. One of those allegedly loyal to organized crime is 51-year-old Silvia Delgado, who was El Chapo’s defense lawyer.
– How do we know that she no longer has connections to the cartel? Wonders Salvador Salazar Gutiérrez.
Since she has been a lawyer for the world’s former leader leader, he believes she can attract many votes.
– There are certainly many who think « if he chose her, she must be good ».
On the outskirts of Ciudad Juárez Silvia Delgado parks its silvery city jeep in the gravel outside a house that is next to a car scrap. One of her girlfriends has invited the neighborhood to a campaign meeting in the garden. About fifty people sit on plastic chairs under a tensioned tarpaulin that gives shadow in the glowing sun. The dust dizzy. Silvia Delgado distributes its flyers with its name and number on. She holds up an enlarged, wrapped ballot paper.
– Here you should enter number 12, she says, pointing.
When Silvia Delgado offered to be El Chapo’s defense lawyer after he was arrested in 2016, he accepted yes immediately. For ten years she had worked as a lawyer in Ciudad Juárez and wanted to take on a bigger case. For a year, she met El Chapo in prison every week.
– We were never alone. At each visit we were monitored by four prison guards. He was very respectful and kind.
His lawyers tried to avoid an extradition to the United States that classified him as the world’s most powerful drug king, but failed. When El Chapo was sentenced to life imprisonment in New York Silvia Delgado followed to translate for his wife, the then 27-year-old beauty queen Emma Coronel Aispuro.
– I traveled privately and was there to explain to her what the judge said, says Silvia Delgado.
She waves away the criticism If she has connections to Sinaloa cartel that is considered responsible For tens of thousands of deaths in Mexico.
– Even if a person has done horrible things, he or she deserves a defense lawyer. It is the very basic principle in the legal system. To those who say I have links to organized crime I just say: prove it!
One of the foremost human rights activists in Ciudad Juárez is Imelda Marrufo, 49, chair of the women’s rights organization Red Mesa de Mujeres. As she worked to lift the problem with the high number of women’s murders in Ciudad Juárezwhich borders El Paso in the United States, she noticed how difficult it was to get people convicted.
– A reform is needed, but the biggest problem in the judiciary is not the judges but the prosecutor’s office. If they do not investigate the cases in a sensible way, the judge does not have a chance to make a fair assessment, she says.
Another problem is that turnout can be low. Only 23 percent of voters are expected to participate in the election, according to a survey that El País had done. It has had the right opposition to breed the Morenapartiet.
– This is the first time we make this choice. It’s complex. It’s hard, but better than not doing anything at all, says Cuauhoc Estrada, 51, congressman for the Morenapartiet.
He points to the border with the United States, which is only 300 meters from his electoral district in the district of Rivera Del Bravo in Ciudad Juárez.
– I am sure that the US president will criticize our election, just as I am critical of a lot in the United States. One should see this judgment choice as part of something bigger. We are changing Mexico, says Cuauhoc Estrada.
