Who is Hugo Aguilar, the first indigenous to preside over the Supreme Court of Justice of Mexico from Benito Juárez (and the political symbolism of his choice)

Hugo Aguilar Ortiz. — Photo foot, Hugo Aguilar has traveled a long journey in the defense of indigenous communities before reaching the Supreme Court of Mexico.

- Author, Writing
- Author's title, BBC News World
June 20, 2025

Less than a year ago indigenous women handed the cane to the first woman president in the history of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum. Now, also for the first time, an indigenous will preside over the Supreme Court of Justice of the country.

Hugo Aguilar Ortiz was the most voted candidate in the unpublished and controversial judicial elections on June 1.

From September 1 he will lead the highest body of the country.

“This Court arises from the people, it is due to the people and the people will have to pay accountable to the greatest expression of democracy,” he said in his first speech after knowing the results.

Aguilar says that his main objective is to generate “agreements between different.” It also states that the judges “do not hinder the changes” and that justice maintains a “dialogue with national reality”, two points that seem addressed to the outgoing court, considered an opposition obstacle for the reforms of the official party, Morena.

Having achieved almost 6 million votes, despite the low participation, Aguilar called on the members of the Judiciary to join this new stage “where corruption, nepotism and classism will not take place.”

Part of the justification of the reform that Sheinbaum has given, precisely, is that the justice system operates under “corruption, nepotism and classism.”

“The social causes will be the basis of the new face of justice in Mexico,” Aguilar added.

The constitutional reform promoted by former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador reduced from 11 to nine the ministers of the Supreme Court, created a new court of judicial discipline that will monitor all the judges of the country and launched the system of election of judges by popular vote.

All these new and old justice agencies, after the elections, remained in the hands of jurists aligned with the ruling party, according to various specialized analyzes that investigated their careers.

Although there is consensus in which the judicial system had to be reformed, experts from several currents warn that the new system, controlled by the Government Party, puts at risk the Mexican Democratic Law rule.

A man casts his vote in a special electoral box during the elections for the Judiciary in the Mayor's Office Tlalpan, Mexico City, on June 1, 2025. — Photo foot, The Mexicans chose through an election the ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation.

Who is Hugo Aguilar

Born in Oaxaca in 1973, Aguilar has been linked to the defense of native peoples in Mexico for more than 30 years.

He is a lawyer and has a master's degree in constitutional law from the Benito Juárez Autonomous University of Oaxaca.

“I grew up with my father's guidance, abbreviated wisdom, vision and indigenous philosophy of my community of San Agustín Tlacotepec,” he says on his official page.

Aguilar was a consultant in indigenous lands of the United Nations High Commissioner, worked at the State Institute and Citizen Participation of Oaxaca and was undersecretary of indigenous rights of the Ministry of Indigenous Affairs of the Government of Oaxaca, according to its resume.

The lawyer received the support from Sheinbaum in his search for position. In February, the president said: “We want an indigenous to reach the Supreme Court.”

The indigenous lawyer and human rights defender, Hugo Aguilar, speaks with people during a demonstration in support of his candidacy as a magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation before the election of judges. — Photo foot, Aguilar was a consultant in indigenous lands of the United Nations High Commissioner.

Since the first year of the Presidency of López Obrador, in 2018, Aguilar directed the area of indigenous rights of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples, where he coordinated consultations with the communities on the Mayan Train, the Interoceanic Corridor and the Felipe Ángeles International Airport.

The three star infrastructure projects of the Obradorista government had a high environmental impact that, in the different regions, generated strong rejection by local indigenous communities.

At the time, the office in Mexico for the United Nations High Commissioner questioned the consultations led by Aguilar for the low participation and lack of information.

In the Yucatan Peninsula, for example, the communities denounced that the Mayan train was built without prior consultation and that cenotes and jungles of ancestral connotation were destroyed.

Aguilar was the government representative in the attention of these complaints, which, in a majority of cases, are maintained.

Critics of the indigenous sector ensure that the Government of Morena repeatedly declared the issue of native peoples as their priority, but that in practice did not realize the promised changes: for example, a constitutional reform that guarantees political representation is pending and ensures the property of their ancestral lands.

“New Justice System”

Before the elections, Aguilar said that its objective is to guarantee the “adult pension, the scholarships for students, the protection of native corn, the substantive equality of women.”

For the lawyer, the electoral process not only defined the new judges, but also opens a stage to define what he called a “new justice system.”

Although structural reforms are pending, according to indigenous critics of the government, the seven years of Morena's government opened a time of symbolic recognition to indigenous communities from the State.

This stage included a decree of López Obrador of the so -called indigenous reform on the control of the territory and the land restitution policy promoted by Claudia Sheinbaum.

“There had been no representation of a person from the original peoples from Juárez (President Benito Juárez, 1858-1872). So, it is a deep change,” said the president on Tuesday following the election.

“How good a person from the original peoples arrived … Mixteco. Juarez was Zapotec,” he added.

The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, at a daily conference at the National Palace of Mexico City on January 8, 2025. — Photo foot, “How good a person from the original peoples arrived,” said the president of Mexico.

Anyway, the electoral process has not been exempt from criticism.

The National Electoral Institute has received 180 challenges of the elections that denounce irregularities in the way the elections were held and the alleged interference of the Government Party in the vote exercise of the citizens through the so -called “accordions”, some lists promoted by Morena in which they indicated people for whom to vote.

The electoral counselor Arturo Castillo proposed “not to declare the validity” of the elections, but to leave this decision in the hands of the Supreme Court, which will continue to be chaired by the magistrates prior to the reform until August 31.

The Organization of American States (OAS), on the other hand, recommended not to replicate the judicial election of Mexico in other countries because it considers that the impartiality of justice weakens.

A judicial reform with political symbolism

Analysis of Daniel Pardo, BBC World correspondent in Mexico

The election of judges has an old political history that allows us to understand the relevance of Aguilar's election. It is not only the apparently claiming symbol towards the indigenous.

During the AMLO government, between 2018 and 2024, the Judiciary blocked, based on constitutional protections, many of the reforms that the president proposed for Mexico.

That made the judges and magistrates, in the eyes of the president, into a kind of arm of an opposition that, according to him, has no connection with the needs of the people and operates in favor of an oligarchic elite.

That is why justice reform is widely seen as a political retaliation rather than a rigorous, methodical and relevant measure to reform a justice considered inefficient and, in many cases, corrupt.

And in that sense, the election of Aguilar meets the political criteria that dominate the speech of the Government Party: it is, they believe from the eyes of Morena, a historical claim for a population, 20% of the national total, which has been for discriminated and excluded centuries of the political process.

The question is yes, this time, symbolic gestures will have a counterpart in reality.

The needs and challenges of justice in Mexico are of immense size. The country lives a security emergency on behalf of territorial, political and economic control that organized crime exercises throughout the national territory.