Lisa Sanchez, Executive Director of Mexico United Against Crime, expressed concerns over Mexico's newly approved judicial reform, stating it poses a risk to judicial integrity and potentially opens the door for organized crime to influence the judiciary. Sanchez made these remarks during an interview with Insight Crime on November 6.
"Judges can campaign and access media time without public funding," said Sanchez,. "However, there are no regulations to prevent a judge from receiving money from a cartel or a businessperson. Therefore, if judges want to campaign, their only options are to use their own money or rely on irregular financial support from someone willing to fund their campaign."
According to Insight Crime, in September, the Mexican government passed a judicial reform allowing 1,600 federal judges to be chosen by popular vote. The reform was enacted by the Mexican Senate and signed by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The first election is scheduled for June 2025.
Quico Toro, Contributing Editor at Persuasion, reported that Obrador proposed these judicial reforms three weeks before stepping down as President. The reforms transitioned Mexico's judges from appointments to elections. Toro said this change will enable cartels to exert more power over the government through elections: "Mexican elections are increasingly disfigured by the toxic influence of the cartels: they intimidate voters, finance friendly political bosses and murder troublesome candidates as a matter of course." This shift would allow cartels to operate with greater impunity, effectively turning Mexico’s judicial system into an instrument for their benefit.
Toro further noted that Mexican cartels already function as state institutions in areas lacking democratic stability. By subjecting judges to elections, Obrador's "softly-softly approach" could permit cartels to sway the judiciary, aligning it with criminal interests rather than upholding justice for ordinary Mexicans. He warned this degradation of democracy might transform Mexico into a "mafia state," impacting long-term U.S. interests as immigration depends on neighboring nations' economic security and cartel-controlled territories near the U.S. affect national security issues.
Sanchez emphasized that "the opportunities for corruption will increase, not only during campaigns but also in the process itself." She argued that "the judicial reform does not truly address issues of corruption, nepotism, impunity, or austerity," introducing numerous regulatory and technical changes negatively impacting organized crime matters.
Sanchez has been leading MUCD since 2018. Her previous roles include coordinating MUCD's drug policy agenda and Latin America program at the Transform Drug Policy Foundation from 2012 to 2018. She has also worked with the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission of the Organization of American States (OAS) and served as an advisor to several governments including those of Mexico, Uruguay, and Colombia.
