The first Supreme Court elected by popular vote was honored in a ceremony at Mexico City’s Zócalo.

On Monday, Indigenous peoples presented “staffs of authority” to nine justices of the new Mexican Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN), the first to be elected by popular vote.

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Amid traditional Oaxacan music, copal incense, and offerings, Indigenous traditional healers conducted a “cleansing and purification ritual” for justices Hugo Aguilar Ortiz, Lenia Batres, Yasmin Esquivel, Loretta Ortiz, Maria Rios, Sara Herrerias, Giovanni Figueroa, Irving Espinosa, and Aristides Guerrero.

“We are the people’s justices because we have fulfilled our duty and we are here under the mandate of Article 39 of the Constitution… We have a clear mandate: to cleanse the judiciary,” said Aguilar Ortiz, an Indigenous citizen of Mixtec origin who will serve as the Supreme Court’s president for the next two years.

At the Zocalo, the country’s largest public square, chants of “Long live the people!, Long live Aguilar Ortiz!” erupted from a crowd of hundreds, marking the beginning of an unprecedented chapter in Mexican justice.

The text reads, “Ceremony of Indigenous peoples gathered in the capital’s Zócalo to hand over the batons of command to the new ministers.”

“Corruption, nepotism and dishonesty will come to an end… The vote you cast at the ballot box on July 1 will bring results… Starting today, we will work tirelessly for a new model of justice,” said the incoming Supreme Court president, referring to the elections in which 13 million citizens chose 881 judges.

Aguilar Ortiz highlighted that “without judicial reform” — promoted by former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (2018–2024) and led by President Claudia Sheinbaum — “Indigenous peoples would not have the presence in public life that we have today.”

“Just a year ago it was unimaginable that I, as an Indigenous person and as someone from the people, despite my studies, my work and the media, would be here speaking to you as a Supreme Court justice. Giving power to the people liberates the people,” he emphasized, drawing applause and chants of support in the Mixtec language.

In Indigenous communities, the “Staff of Authority means leading the work, being both father and mother of the people, and earning the trust of elders, youth, children and seniors that whoever takes the staff will care for them,” Aguilar Ortiz explained.

In his speech, the 52-year-old Mixtec lawyer reflected on Mexican history, pointing to the conquest and the arrival of the Spanish who “declared these lands practically uninhabited (…) that Indians had no soul and therefore had no legal standing to act in public life.”

Among the crowd, groups of mothers searching for their missing children raised banners with the names of their disappeared loved ones, demanding justice in a country with more than 130,000 people still unaccounted for.

The new justices will be sworn in during a session at the Senate in Mexico City at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Mexican President Sheinbaum is expected to attend. During her first government report, she stressed that the constitutional reform of the judiciary ends the “era of nepotism, corruption and privilege.”

teleSUR/ JF

Source: EFE

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