Mexico’s Next Supreme Court Has Been Chosen

As a result of Mexico’s judicial election held on June 1st, the new slate of judges for the Supreme Court (Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación) has been chosen.

The new Supreme Court is set to take office on September 1st, with nine justices (as in the United States).

The Supreme Court ballot had 64 candidates, arranged in four columns. Here’s a picture of it (the Supreme Court ballot on top):

The left two columns listed 33 female candidates and the right two columns listed 31 male candidates. The voters were asked to vote for four male candidates and five female candidates.
The top 9 vote-getters are the new justices.

The top vote-getter, Mexico’s next Presidente de la Corte (Chief Justice) is Hugo Aguilar Ortiz, who received over 6 million votes (6,195,000).

Aguilar, 51, is from the state of Oaxaca and is a Mixtec Indian. Currently, he serves as indigenous rights coordinator of INPI, the Instituto Nacional de los Pueblos Indígenas 
( National Institute of Indigenous Peoples).

Aguilar is a lawyer but has never served as a judge.

Here is a list, in descending order of their votes, of the 9 newly-elected judges of the Mexican Supreme Court.

1. Hugo Aguilar Ortiz, currently an official of INPI. Received 6,195,000 votes.
2. Lenia Batres Guadarrama, Already on the Supreme Court, 5,802,000 votes.
3. Yasmin Esquivel Mossa, already on the Supreme Court, 5,000,310 votes.
4. Loreta Ortiz Ahlf, already on the Supreme Court, 5,012,000 votes.
5. Maria Estela Rios Gonzalez, former legal advisor to AMLO, 4,729,000 votes.
6. Giovanni Azael Figueroa Mejia, lawyer with constitutional law doctorate, 3,655,000 votes.
7. Irving Espinosa Betanzo, lawyer/Mexico City anti-corruption magistrate, 3,587,000 votes.
8. Aristides Rodrigo Guerrero Garcia, lawyer and former Mexico City official, 3,584,000 votes.
9. Sara Irene Herrerias Guerra, Head of human rights department of Attorney General, 3,268,000 votes.

So this is the new Mexico Supreme Court, set to be on the court September 1st.

Here are two photos of the Mexican Supreme Court building, in downtown Mexico City: