MEXICO CITY (AP) — A lawyer who once represented drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán won a judgeship in the northern state of Chihuahua in Mexico’s historic judicial elections this month, according to the vote count concluded Wednesday.
Silvia Delgado García won a spot as a criminal court judge in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. The winners were scheduled to have their results certified on Thursday.
In 2016, Delgado García was a member of Sinaloa cartel leader Guzmán’s legal team when he was temporarily held in a prison in Ciudad Juarez before being extradited to the United States. He was eventually tried, convicted and sentenced to life in prison in the U.S.
Some critics of electing judges, and a human rights litigation group called Defensorxs, had labeled Delgado García “high risk” before the June 1 vote, because “she defends alleged drug traffickers.”
Hailed as a way to make corrupt judges accountable to the people and clean up Mexico’s judiciary by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the historic elections that covered more than 2,600 positions ranging up to the country’s Supreme Court, drew only a paltry 13% voter participation.
Critics feared it would politicize the judiciary and offer organized crime an easier to influencing judicial decisions. Mexico’s governing Morena party was poised to gain control of the Supreme Court as a majority of the winners had strong ties to the party or were aligned ideologically.
Delgado García did not respond to requests for comment after the election, but spoke to the AP before it.
Delgado García explained her decision to represent Guzmán as a fundamental right of the legal system: “Everyone has a right to an effective defense.”
She noted that she only helped at one hearing where the power went out, and her job was to visit him in the Ciudad Juarez prison where he was being held.
“If they give me a client of that magnitude, in terms of resume that’s going to help me,” she said.
She campaigned on her 18 years of experience as a criminal defense attorney.
“I am a citizen who believes in the law, and I am extremely prepared to carry out the job and I aim to be impartial in the decisions I hand down.”
