Mexicans elect their judges under shadow of organised crime

MEXICO CITY: Mexico began unprecedented elections on Sunday allowing voters to choose their judges at all levels, in a country where drug cartels and other vested interests regularly seek to alter the course of justice.

The government says the reform making Mexico the world´s only country to select all of its judges and magistrates by popular vote is needed to tackle deep-rooted graft and impunity. “Those who want the regime of corruption and privileges in the judiciary to continue say this election is rigged. Or they also say it´s so a political party can take over the Supreme Court,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a video on the eve of the election.

Critics and experts are concerned that the judiciary will be politicized and that it could become easier for criminals to influence the courts with threats and bribery. While corruption already exists, “there is reason to believe that elections may be more easily infiltrated by organized crime than other methods of judicial selection,” said Margaret Satterthwaite, the United Nations special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.

But cartels were likely trying to influence the outcome in the shadows, said Luis Carlos Ugalde, a consultant and former head of Mexico´s electoral commission. “It is logical that organized criminal groups would have approached judges and candidates who are important to them,” Ugalde, general director of Integralia Consultores, told a roundtable hosted by the Inter-American Dialogue.