MEXICO CITY: Mexico’s electoral commission has confirmed that Indigenous lawyer Hugo Aguilar will be the country’s first Supreme Court chief elected at the ballot box, an unprecedented vote that critics say will consolidate the ruling party’s grip on power.

Aguilar, a member of the Indigenous Mixtec group, was certified on Sunday by the National Electoral Institute (INE), after winning the June 1 vote which saw Mexico become the first country in the world to elect judges at all levels.

He received a certificate of majority in Spanish and another in Mixtec, his mother tongue, after the executive secretary of the INE, Claudia Espino — also of Indigenous origin — addressed him in the Tarahumara language.

“The era of when our word, our requests, and even our mere presence were cause for ridicule and discrimination is now behind us,” said Aguilar, who is now one of the highest profile Indigenous leaders in Latin America.

President Claudia Sheinbaum has defended the election as a democratic means to overhaul the corruption-plagued court system. But critics warned it would erode judicial independence, leave more judges vulnerable to criminal influence and consolidate the ruling party’s power.

The new Supreme Court will comprise nine judges as of September 1, a majority of whom are aligned with the ruling Morena party. The election is the result of constitutional amendments proposed by former president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who frequently clashed with the courts as they blocked several of his flagship initiatives.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2025