credit – Hugo Aguilar, via Facebook screengrab

Americans often refer to our country as undergoing a continual experiment in self-government. Well, down in Mexico, that experiment has been taken to a whole other level.

On the first of June, the North American nation became the first in modern history to elect its judges at all levels by popular vote.

The first supreme court chief justice elected democratically on Earth is Hugo Aguilar, a noted indigenous rights defender of the highest esteem in Latin America who also acted as legal counsel to the Zapatista guerilla movement during their demilitarization.

He is a member of the Mixtec indigenous group, an ancient Mesoamerican lineage surviving from 1,500 BCE inhabiting a tri-state area of Western Oaxaca and neighboring portions of Puebla and Guerrero.

Aguilar, like 20% of Mexico’s population, considers himself indigenous, and has said previously that the native populations are owed “a significant debt” from colonialism. He has vowed to wear Mixtec clothing in court over the traditional toga, or judicial robe.

Aguilar worked at the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples under President Claudia Sheinbaum’s predecessor and popular native figure Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Despite a distinguished 30-year-career as a lawyer, Aguilar has never held the post of a judge before. In a Facebook post following his victory, Aguilar delivered a speech in his native language, with Spanish added in subtitles.

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Winning the popular vote by a margin of almost 400,000 votes over the second-place winner, the first-of-their-kind elections also saw five female justices elected to join Aguilar on the bench.

They were organized by Lopez Obrador during the second-half of his tenure following continual clashes with the court over the constitutionality of his policies, a disagreement which President Sheinbaum has suggested was influenced by corruption and special interests.

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The President suggested that the world would see how a different judicial-political system could exist. However, critics of the election pointed out that only 13% of eligible voters participated.

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