02/06/2025

MONDAY | JUNE 2, 2025

9 Mexicans elect judges under shadow of cartels

200 migrants rescued in Channel LILLE: Nearly 200 migrants trying to cross the Channel from France to Britain in small boats were rescued between late Friday and late Saturday, French coastal authorities said. A total 184 people were picked up in four different rescue operations, the maritime prefecture for France’s Channel and northern region said yesterday. In one case, the motor stalled on a boat carrying 61 people. In another, nine people on a boat called for assistance. According to a tally of official figures, 15 people have died so far this year trying to cross the Channel, one of the busiest areas in the world for shipping. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced last month new policies to tackle high levels of regular and irregular migration, in an attempt to stem a growing loss of support to the hard right. They include looking at the creation of centres in other countries to take in migrants whose asylum applications have been turned down. – AFP “People have been shifted to safer places. Food, water and essential medicines were provided”, the army said on Saturday. Scores of people die each year during the rainy season. – AFP Monsoon rains kill at least 30 in India GUWAHATI: Flash floods and landslides after torrential monsoon rain over the last two days killed at least 30 people in India’s northeast, officials said yesterday. State disaster management officials said eight people died in Assam, and nine in Arunachal Pradesh, many of them in landslides as earth loosened by the water slumped into the valley below. Another five people died in a landslide in the neighbouring state of Mizoram. The officials said six people lost their lives in Meghalaya and at least two others were killed in the states of Nagaland and Tripura. A red alert was issued for several districts in the region after the non-stop downpour over the last three days. Rivers swollen by the lashing rain – including the mighty Brahmaputra, which rises in the Himalayas and flows through India’s northeast towards its delta in Bangladesh – broke their banks across the region. The Indian army said it had saved hundreds “in a massive rescue operation” across Manipur state.

o Move to address corruption, says govt

elections may be more easily infiltrated by organised crime than other methods of judicial selection”, said Margaret Satterthwaite, the UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers. Judicial elections also “entail a risk that the electorate will not choose candidates based on their merit”, she said. The run-up to the vote has not been accompanied by the kind of violence that often targets politicians in Mexico. But cartels are likely trying to influence the outcome in the shadows, said Luis Carlos Ugalde, a consultant and former head of Mexico’s electoral commission. “It is logical that organised criminal groups would have approached judges and candidates who are important to them,” Ugalde, general director of Integralia Consultores, told a

roundtable hosted by the Inter American Dialogue. Carlota Ramos, a lawyer in the office of President Claudia Sheinbaum, said while the risk of organised crime infiltrating state institutions was real, it had already been present and “invisible”. The new system allows greater scrutiny of aspiring judges, Ramos said. Rights group Defensorxs has identified around 20 candidates it considers “high risk”, including Silvia Delgado, a former lawyer for Sinaloa Cartel co-founder Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. “Every person has the right to counsel,” said Delgado, who is standing to be a judge in the northern state of Chihuahua. Fernando Escamilla, who is seeking to be a judge in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, was a lawyer for Miguel Angel Trevino, a former leader of the Los Zetas

cartel, renowned for its brutality. Another aspiring judge, in Durango state, spent almost six years in prison in the United States for drug crimes. “I’ve never sold myself to you as the perfect candidate,” Leopoldo Chavez said in a video. Voters yesterday cast their ballots for 880 federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, as well as hundreds of local judges and magistrates. Another election for the remainder will be held in 2027. Candidates are supposed to have a law degree, experience in legal affairs and what is termed “a good reputation”, as well as no criminal record. Sheinbaum has played down indications many voters may stay away, in part due to the complexity of the exercise. “We don’t even know where the polling stations will be,” said Teresa Vargas, 63, who despite being a lawyer, admitted she was unsure how to vote or who to choose. To do a good job, voters “would have to spend hours and hours researching the track record and the profiles of each of the hundreds of candidates”, said David Shirk, a professor at the University of San Diego. He believes that most of the corruption in Mexico’s judicial system is in law enforcement agencies and public prosecutor offices. “It’s far easier to bribe a prosecutor and avoid charges overall than to wind up in court and then have to influence the judge,” said Shirk, who heads the Justice in Mexico research project. The judicial reforms were championed by Sheinbaum’s predecessor and mentor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who frequently clashed with the courts and accused them of serving the political and economic elite. The main reason for the elections seems to be “because Lopez Obrador had a grudge against the judges”, Shirk said. – AFP

MEXICO CITY: Mexico held unprecedented elections yesterday allowing voters to choose their judges at all levels, in a country where drug cartels and other vested interests regularly seek to alter the course of justice. The government said the reform making Mexico the world’s only country to select all of its judges and magistrates by popular vote is needed to address deep-rooted corruption and impunity. But there are concerns that the judiciary would be politicised and that it would become easier for criminals to influence the courts with threats and bribery. While corruption is already an issue, “there is reason to believe that

Supreme Court justice candidate Hugo Aguilar delivers a speech during a rally last week in San Agustin Tlacotepec, Mexico. – REUTERSPIC

South Korea presidential candidates rally SEOUL: South Korea’s leading candidates held major campaign events yesterday, two days from a snap presidential election triggered by its former leader’s removal after his declaration of martial law. The 60-year-old Lee began his rally in his hometown of Andong, 240km southeast of Seoul, telling his supporters he would seek to weaken the concentration of development in the capital region and boost non-Seoul areas. to kill Lee to prevent him from becoming president. Kim Moon-soo was scheduled to campaign in the greater Seoul area, and kicked off a rally yesterday in nearby Suwon by commenting on rival Lee’s security measures. “Look, I’m not wearing a bullet proof vest, right?

The election is set to cap months of political turmoil sparked by Yoon Suk Yeol’s brief suspension of civilian rule in December, for which he was impeached and removed from office. All major polls have put liberal Lee Jae-myung well ahead in the presidential race, with the latest Gallup survey showing 49% of respondents viewed him as the best candidate. Kim Moon-soo, from the conservative People Power Party (PPP), Yoon’s former party, trailed Lee with 35%.

“We should not simply seek a regional equal development strategy but rather provide more incentives for non-Seoul regions to support them more,” said Lee, wearing a bullet-proof vest. Lee has been campaigning with additional security measures, including bulletproof shields set up on the podium. He was stabbed in the neck in January last year in Busan by a man pretending to be a supporter, who later confessed that his intention was

“But Lee is now even using bulletproof shields, feeling the vest isn’t enough,” he said. “With such bulletproof measures, Lee is poised to impose his own dictatorship and we must stop it,” Kim said. Nearly 35% of voters have already cast their ballots – taking advantage of two days of early voting earlier last week, according to the National Election Commission. – AFP

Kim greeting his supporters in Seoul yesterday. – REUTERSPIC