Mexico is set to elect its judges by popular vote — a move that critics warn could undermine judicial independence and empower organized crime.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Mexicans are headed to the polls on Sunday for an election that will change the face of the country’s judiciary. For the first time in Mexico’s history, voters will pick among nearly 8,000 candidates to replace all of the federal and state judges in the country, making Mexico one of the few countries in the world to elect their judges instead of appointing them. NPR’s Eyder Peralta joins us from Mexico City, Hey, Eyder.
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.
DETROW: So this is going to make Mexico an outlier. Why is the country changing its judicial system now, and why in such a broad way?
PERALTA: Well, I mean, this is the result of an epic fight between branches of government. I mean, basically, you have to go back to the previous president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. And he always complained that the courts in Mexico were political, that they were corrupt, that they were rotten with nepotism.
And then as he’s taking these shots at the courts, the Supreme Court – Mexico’s Supreme Court – strikes down one of his key proposals. The court says that he couldn’t put the National Guard – which is a civilian force – under military command, and Lopez Obrador is furious. He tells the Mexican public that the judiciary has to be made more democratic, so he and his party, Morena, proposed a constitutional amendment that changes the way judges in Mexico become judges.
And, you know, this is a super popular president with a supermajority in Congress, and the amendment passes easily. Not only that, but a new president takes power, Claudia Sheinbaum, but she comes from his same party, and she supports this reform.
DETROW: I mean, that is a really interesting storyline, especially at this point, where there’s…
PERALTA: Yeah.
DETROW: …Tensions playing out in a similar way in the U.S. and elsewhere. But one of the things that I noted up top was there are thousands of candidates. How exactly is this election going to work?
PERALTA: I mean, it’s going to look a lot like a regular election. Voters are going to go to their polling place, except they’re faced with a tough task. Just one example, the Supreme Court – nine justices will come out from this election, but there are 64 candidates, and keeping it very real here, very few people here have any idea who any of these candidates are. And it’s not like they’re getting any ads on TV or many interviews with these candidates so, you know, they could make an informed decision.
The way it’s working is the Electoral Commission has posted the candidates resumes on its website, and that’s how voters are supposed to make a decision. So, you know, voters have a ton of homework to do before they head to the polls, and it also leaves a lot of people wondering just what kind of judiciary Mexico will be left with.
DETROW: One of the more eye-popping aspects of this is that there are candidates affiliated with organized crime. Do we know how many there are or how they even got on the ballot?
PERALTA: I mean, civil society groups have identified dozens of candidates that they say are likely to have ties with drug cartels. And then there are some that have clear ties to the cartels. El Chapo was one of Mexico’s biggest drug lords, and now his former lawyer is on the ballot in the state of Sinaloa. There are a few other candidates who served time for drug trafficking, and they’re running to be federal judges.
And there was a commission in the legislature that was supposed to vet candidates, but they had weeks to get through thousands of candidates. I’ve spoken to some of the candidates who say that the process was just riddled with irregularity. Some didn’t get an interview at all, or they got rejected by the online system. Some told me that their interview lasted minutes. So this was very much a harried process.
DETROW: The way you describe this, I’m wondering, is there anyone defending this or anybody who thinks that this is a good idea for the country’s democracy?
PERALTA: I mean, it’s hard to find a scholar here in Mexico or anywhere else, for that matter, who thinks it’s a good idea. Judiciaries are designed to be kept at arm’s length from the political system, and this change throws the judiciary smack in the middle of the political arena. One of the current Supreme Court justices, who says he’s not going to vote in this election, has said that this is, quote, “a historic mistake, that it weakens the judiciary, that it cuts into its independence.” Monica Castillejos-Aragon used to be a clerk at the Mexican Supreme Court, and now she teaches comparative law at UC Berkeley. And she says it’s clear what’s happening here.
MONICA CASTILLEJOS-ARAGON: Mexico is just returning to the old days of the authoritarian regime. But Morena was able to develop a more sophisticated system.
PERALTA: She means is that the old PRI, which ruled Mexico for 70 years, tended to undermine the judiciary. Castillejos-Aragon says, this feels like a full takeover by the now ruling party Morena. And it’s modeled after other authoritarian takeovers, including what Viktor Orban did in Hungary. And let’s not forget this is a constitutional reform, so it’s going to be very difficult to roll back, and Mexicans will have to live with the consequences of this for years to come.
DETROW: That is NPR’s Eyder Peralta, reporting from Mexico City. Thank you so much for joining us.
PERALTA: Thank you, Scott.
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