Will Pandora’s cabinet open? Mexico experiments with a direct choice of judges
The government party was enforced by the government.
Mexico City, BRATISLAVA. In the past, Silvia Delgado García as a lawyer represented the head of the Mexican drug cartel Sinalo Joaquín Guzman, known as « El Chapo ». Recently, she could become a judge of the Criminal Court in Chihuahua at the US border.
This will be allowed by the judicial reform in which the Mexicans will be voted directly on Sunday 1 June for the first time. Candidates apply for hundreds of lower judicial positions, but also all chairs in the Supreme Court.
Delgado García does not consider her working past as an obstacle. « I’m not corrupt. They can’t burn me for representing someone, » he quotes her Reuters agency.
It is the corruption with which Mexican courts have a long -term problem with the central theme of the upcoming elections. The ruling party, which has pushed for reform, advocates it by saying that it will free the country from bribery.
However, critics point out that the new regulation significantly favors the ruling party and may mean the end of the independence of the judiciary.
“I feel like Mexico Opens Pandora’s cabinet. We have never experienced something like that before. It’s like an experiment and we don’t know what its outcome will be, ” She told AP agency Carin Zissis, analyst of the non -profit organization Coucil of the Americas, where she is engaged in Latin America and Mexico.
In the article you can also read:
- Whom will the Mexicans vote,
- Why the government’s reform party has pushed through,
- Why critics condemn the choice.
Confusing choices
The Mexicans will vote on Sunday more than 2600 judges – most of them are judges of the courts of lower instance, but there are also 850 federal judges and all nine judges of the Supreme Court. The remaining several hundred judges will be chosen in 2027.
After Bolivia, Mexico becomes the second country of the world, where the judges of the Supreme Court are elected by citizens.
More than 7700 people are applying for the chair in the next vote. Many proponents of the vote also say that the elections may be confusing because they do not know all candidates.
From the latest survey It follows that 72 percent of the approximately thousand voters surveyed said the election of judges is needed. However, only 23 percent of them were familiar with the candidates to vote for.
Low turnout is also expected to complicate the process. « Many voters will probably not come to vote or vote blindly, » She told Radio Heidi Osun, the director of the agency who supervised the survey.
The influence of the government party
After Congress approved a controversial reform last year, there were mass protests in Mexico, led by legal experts and several judges. Several hundred demonstrators even invaded the room to express their disagreement during the vote.
The government party Morena appealed to the change, namely the then left -wing President Andrés Manuel López ceremony. Encouraged by a strong mandate from voters even publicly criticized the judges.
He pushed for the reform after the Supreme Court blocked several of its plans, including the weakening of the Election Control Agency or the transfer of the National Guard under military control. Federal judges have also suspended several of its projects, including the construction of the railway for environmental concerns.
Deal by cartel and mash. Mexico chooses in the elections between two women Read
However, his successor Claudia Sheinbaum supports the reform and says that Mexican courts will get rid of corruption and family life, and the judges will finally represent the interests of the people.
However, opponents of change are concerned that judges may succumb to civil pressure, which will also be related to the popularity of certain politicians.
« Nobody chose me. So when I make a decision, I’m not owed to anyone, » she told the newspaper The Economist Federal judge Martha Magaña. It does not run for new elections.
Concerns about the weakening of the courts
The societal debate on the need for judicial reform in Mexico has been taking place for a long time. Surveys followthat citizens consider judges to be one of the most corrupt officials in the country – right after traffic police.
The opponents of the new vote system acknowledge that the court problem needs to be solved. However, the direct choice is not a good way – especially in Mexico, where the government party Morena also has a majority in parliament.
They also point out that the new candidates were checked by the commission, but most of its members had ties to the government party. Despite the fact that judges cannot report their party jurisdiction or receive party money for a campaign, several former representatives or allies of the ruling party have already announced on social networks whose candidates will support.
At the same time, according to critics, the courts will open up candidates without experience or qualification, and will be easier to influence criminal gangs with which Mexico still has problems in some parts.
« It is a dysfunctional mechanism enforced by the ruling party and its allies, which has threw a 30 -year gradual improvement in the judiciary into the basket. It is an ideal scenario to penetrate criminal interests, » have written Lawyers of Luis Pereda from the Mexican Bar Association and Adrian Garcia of Stanford University.
