Mexicans will immediately choose all their judges: this opens the door for Mafia magistrates?

It has been more than twelve years since Roberto Quirroa and his mother María Valdez were taken by armed men in the Mexican border town of Reynosa. Who the men were, why they were after them, nobody knew it. Maria was released after forty days, Roberto is still not a trace. He thus became one of the more than 100,000 Mexicans who are missed as missing and who only seem to look for relatives.

For Delia Quirroa, the disappearance of her brother was the moment she decided to delve into Mexican criminal law. « Lawyers, the authorities, were barely helped in the search for Roberto. I decided to study law myself to understand what legal instruments I had, » says Quiroa.

Quiroa grew in her role and over the years she stood abundantly kidnapped numerous desperate mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. Time and again she said she ran into walls at courts and public prosecutors. « Lack of knowledge of the legal system. Bureaucracy. Corruption. Many things that stranded. That’s why I want to try to help people immediately, so that others don’t have to experience what I have experienced, » says Quiroa.

Corruption and nepotism

On 1 June, Quirroa will be able to choose new judges on the ballot if Mexicans can choose. From judges at the lower district courts to supreme judges in the Supreme Court: for the first time, judges in Mexico are chosen immediately. There are thousands of candidates. The election is unique: there is no country in the world where all judges in all courts are immediately chosen by the people.

Letting judges choose is one of the radical reforms in which former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024) came along in the last weeks of his term of office. Amlo, as he is called, found the distance between the judiciary and the ordinary Mexicans too great. He argued that corruption and nepotism would disappear if judges were to be chosen by ‘the people’ and account for it, and that judges would be more democratic.

Delia Quirroa is the first to admit that the legal system in Mexico is in bad shape. In addition to corruption, in particular, lower courts in particular, there is a huge lack of manpower and money to be able to investigate public prosecutors, so that only 15 percent of the reports in Mexico lead to a conviction. A large proportion of things are never investigated.

I hope that I can force authorities to allow searches for missing persons, for example

« The law itself is not the problem in Mexico. If it were complied with, we would not be in such a bad situation, » says Quiroa. She wants to become a subdistrict court in Sinaloa, a violent state in western Mexico. « The subdistrict court judge is the first to deal with citizens if there are serious human rights violations. Such a district judge has various instruments to force the authorities to do their work. The problem is that the current judges do not use those instruments. I hope that I can, for example, to tackle people or search for missing persons. »

Drug lane El Chapo

A reform of the legal system in Mexico is desperately needed, say all parties in Mexico. But direct elections of judges at all levels is dangerous for democracy, NGOs, foreign governments and experts argued well before the constitutional amendment was adopted. In a country where mayor candidates are murdered or bribed and even governors appear on the wage list of drug cartels, it is obvious that the Mafia will also try to ‘buy’ judges and magistrates. The infiltration of organized crime in the legal system would make the impunity in Mexico so worse.

From now on, judges no longer make a career on the basis of their CV, but on the basis of the voice of the people. The threshold to participate in the elections of 1 June was not high: a legal diploma, five years of legal work experience and a number of recommendation letters from loved ones were enough to become a candidate judge. The lawyer of drug lord El Chapo, the lawyer of the notorious Zetas cartel, a prosecutor who is associated with the murder of two journalists: they all participate in the elections.

Murders, abductions: nothing is being investigated or punished. There lies the big problem of Mexico

In the first instance, 24,000 people signed up for the elections. Three committees, two of which were dominated by the Morena government party, screened thousands of people in a six -week period. Subsequently, a lottery decided who could participate in the elections to prevent the ballot papers from becoming too large. According to constitution expert Javier Martin Reyes, who wrote a very critical book about the legal reform, Mexico is heading for a historic disaster.

« The big problem in Mexico around the judiciary is a lack of good judges, but you have to invest in better training. But who still wants to study law if you have to be elected to become a judge? » Says Reyes. « If you want to improve the legal system, you have to start with the parts of the system that work the worst. The police. The Public Prosecution Service. Murds, abductions: nothing is being investigated or punished. That is the big problem of Mexico. »

According to Reyes, not only the focus of the reform is wrong. According to him, government party Morena would like to increase its own power with it. « You can’t officially be a member of a political party if you want to become a judge. But who tells us that the candidates who are now participating do not have any ties with Morena, the party who had a big say in whom was allowed to participate at all? Democracy is at stake with this election. »

‘Beauty errors’

Purchasing advertisements on social media, radio or television was forbidden in these elections, as well as the use of public money. Support from political parties was not allowed either. Apart from a few posters, little in Mexico people reminds people that historical elections are coming.

The result is that few Mexicans are busy with the upcoming elections, if they already know they will be held on 1 June. A large part is not aware of who the candidates are in their district and state, and do not know what the difference is between a public prosecutor and a judge, according to several polls from Mexican media. The elections are fully promoted by the government, so there is a good chance that the loyal base of party Morena will vote. It would only increase the power of the party.

Eduardo Andrade is a veteran in Mexican politics and has been affiliated with the PRI since the 1960s, the most powerful party in Mexico for decades. He correctly welcomes the reform. « With such a large reform you cannot expect that it all goes without beauty errors. But now Mexicans have the chance to learn more about the legal system. And they get a direct influence on who will be their judge, » says Andrade.

Andrade laughs andrade that organized crime, a political party or another interest group can get more influence on the system in this way. « That is precisely the case now! Corrupt judges, judges who do not think in the interest of the people. That is now being changed. And those who will then go his own way can be voted out a few years later. »

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