On March 30, the campaign of candidates for judges and magistrates began in Mexico who will be chosen by popular vote to integrate the Judiciary. This process gives Catholics the opportunity to promote fundamental values such as human dignity in the judicial system.
The elections are the result of the reform of the Judiciary approved in September 2024 by the Congress of the Union and will allow the election of 881 judicial positions nationwide and local, which represents a deep change in the delivery of justice and offers Catholics the possibility of participating with responsibility in public life.
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Among the positions to be renewed are ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), magistrates of the Electoral Court, District Judges and members of the Judicial Discipline Court.
The vision of the Catholic Church on the election
Fr. Mario Ángel Flores Ramos, an advisor to the Mexican Episcopate Conference (CEM), acknowledged that it is “a complex, difficult choice,” but stressed that “there is the right to be there and the Catholic has every right to go.” He warned about the importance of not “voting crazy”, but of doing it clearly and responsibility.
Interviewed by ACI Press, he said that “there are some prospects that can coincide with the basic principles of our Catholic faith: defend life, defend autonomy, defend democracy, defend free opinion, etc.”
Therefore, he invited voters to inform themselves about candidate’s profiles before casting their vote.
Father Flores Ramos also warned about “a failure of origin” in this process, arguing that the selection of judges by popular vote compromises the independence of the judiciary. According to the priest, the charges must be occupied “for the best profiles for each of the tasks and, especially, the maximum court of justice of a nation, which must be free of any influence and any dependence.”
Difficulty to meet candidates
About 3,000 candidates for ministers, magistrates and judges participate in this process, who have only social networks and printed propaganda as dissemination tools. Father Flores Ramos warned that “the same voter will not even know who chooses, because there is no presentation before the public, which would also be totally useless to try to meet thousands of candidates.”
To mitigate this difficulty, the National Electoral Institute (INE) enabled The website Conóceles!where citizens can consult the trajectory and proposals of each applicant.
Risks for democracy and judicial independence
The selection process of the candidates was in charge of the three powers of the Union. The Presidency of the Republic, headed by Claudia Sheinbaum, proposed 30% of the applicants, while the Congress of the Union, mostly dominated by Morena – the Sheinbaum party – designated another 30%. Finally, the Judiciary, through the SCJN, the Council of the Judiciary and the Electoral Court, selected the remaining 40%.
Fr. Flores Ramos questioned that “we are already with a group previously chosen to favor the interests of the Executive Power.” He considered that the candidates have been selected “according to the criteria of the ruling party, so they are not representing people.”
He warned that this is “a great danger”, since “in advance, it can be said that the autonomy that must be the most characteristic of the Judiciary is being lost.”
Apathy and manipulation of the electoral process
Political analyst Guillermo Torres, director of the Knowledge platform votewarned about “a generalized apathy” around the election, which, in his opinion, reduces “the intention to vote, which allows the choice to be more manipulable.”
According to Torres, “people do not know the process, they are not interested and simply believe that it is not necessary to participate. We may have a very low participation.”
In their analysis, “those who promoted this initiative, this reform, which is the federal government itself (…) because somehow they have a certain margin of operation, they have some ease to even be able to manipulate, to call it that way, this process itself”
While the government estimates that around 100 million people in Mexico can vote, Torres expects real participation between 15% and 20% of the electoral population, that is, about 20 million people.
The role of the Church and the importance of the judicial election
The Primada Archdiocese of Mexico, In its March 31 editorialhe clarified that “the Church has not sought or seek to get involved in this process violating electoral provisions.” However, he stressed that the Church is made up of citizens and that these “will decide, with the information they have, their vote to choose the next judges.”
Therefore, he called for more and better information platforms and recalled the importance that citizens “make awareness that the election of a judge has direct incidence in everyday life.”
“A bad judge can imprison innocent, it can favor injustice in some patrimonial or commercial trial, it can affect society for evil,” he said.
Diego López Colín
I am a graduate of journalism at the Carlos Septién García school with experience of religious institutional communication. Since 2016 I write for digital media and, since 2018, I report the most important news about the Catholic event in Mexico for the Ewtn news channel. ACI Press correspondent in Mexico since 2023.