Silvia Delgado, a lawyer who defends the drug agent’s election as judge

A former defense attorney, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was elected as the judge for the first ever judicial election in Mexico.

The suicide note issued Tuesday showed that Silvia Delgado won enough votes to ensure he served as a local crime judge in the city of Juarez on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Her candidacy is the most controversial of the elections held on June 1.

A leading transparency group accused Delgado of being one of several candidates, allegedly linked to organized crime on the voting table, an allegation of her strong dismissal, believing she was just doing her job by defending El Chapo.

The 51-year-old lawyer was part of El Chapo’s defense team before the infamous Voral Lord was extradited to the United States from Mexico in 2017.

The Sinaloa Cartel leader was convicted of drug trafficking in 2019 and sentenced to life imprisonment in a Super Max prison in Colorado.

Delgado argued in an interview with the BBC before the election that if El Chapo was entitled to legal counsel and dismissed the proposal for conflicts of interest, if she was elected as judge.

After Tuesday’s voting statistics were released, Delgado said she avoided comments until her victory was officially confirmed.

The judicial election was the first such election held in Mexico after radical reforms by the ruling Morena Party.

Its supporters say electoral judges, including Supreme Court judges, will make the judiciary more democratic and perceive voters in a direct vote.

But its critics argue that it undermines the independence of the judiciary.

Turnout is low at 13% – the lowest of any federal vote held in Mexico – many observers say Mexicans have little enthusiasm for choosing a judge directly.

However, President Claudia Sheinbaum said the election had been a huge success.