An Indigenous lawyer from the state of Oaxaca is set to become the president of Mexico’s supreme court following the country’s unprecedented elections to appoint its entire judicial system by popular vote.
Activists hailed the election of Hugo Aguilar, a member of the Mixtec Indigenous group, as a symbolic victory – while noting that Aguilar, who topped the poll of candidates for the supreme court, had long since shifted from his own roots as an activist to a figure much more closely aligned with the state, and involved in controversial mega-projects such as the Maya Train.
