Ex-lawyer of drug lord El Chapo elected as judge

Silvia Delgado, 51, was a member of Guzman’s defence team before the Sinaloa cartel’s co-founder was extradited to the United States for trial in 2017.

He is currently serving a life sentence for drug trafficking in a maximum-security prison in Colorado.

One of the most controversial contenders of the election, Delgado was elected as a local criminal judge in the northern city of Ciudad Juarez, which sits on the border with Texas.

She received the second-highest number of votes out of the five women who were elected to the bench in Chihuahua state, who will sit alongside five male judges.

Mexican human rights agency Defensorxs flagged her as one of several high-risk candidates in the elections due to their alleged connections to organised crime and corruption.

Delgado has strongly denied any criminal links throughout her campaign and defended her time working for El Chapo as just doing her job as a lawyer.

She has not been charged with any crime and is not under any type of criminal investigation.

But Reuters reported that, as a member of his counsel, Delgado made weekly visits to Guzman in prison when he was detained in Ciudad Juarez prior to his extradition to give updates on his case.

Sweeping judicial reforms, enacted last year by the leftist ruling party Morena, saw over 7,500 judges – from federal posts that include nine members of the country’s Supreme Court, to thousands of local judges and magistrates – go up for election on 1 June.

The remaining positions will be contested in 2027.

This makes Mexico the only country in the world to select all of its judges via popular vote. However, turnout was the lowest for any federal election ever held there, at only 13%.

The government maintains that the new system makes judges more accountable to the people and the system as a whole more democratic.

Its detractors argue it will undermine judicial independence and increase the influence of criminal influence and corruption.