MEXICO CITY, June 18, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - A former lawyer for jailed Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has been elected a judge in a city neighboring the United States, the results of the country's first-ever judicial elections showed Tuesday.

Silvia Delgado, 51, was a member of Guzman's legal team in Ciudad Juarez, where the Sinaloa cartel co-founder was detained before being extradited to the United States in 2017.

She was elected a judge in the crime-plagued border city of Ciudad Juarez, results from the June 1 election showed.

She received the second-highest vote of the five women who were elected to the bench in northern Chihuahua state, alongside five male judges.

Delgado's candidacy was one of the most controversial in the election, which will make Mexico the world's only country to choose all of its judges and magistrates by popular vote.

She argued that her defense of Guzman did not make her a criminal.

"Every person has the right to counsel," she said, talking up her experience to voters.

She was one of around 20 candidates identified by the rights group Defensorxs as "high-risk" for the legitimacy of the judiciary due to allegations of cartel links, corruption and sexual abuse.

The Sinaloa cartel was one of six Mexican gangs designated terrorist organizations in February by US President Donald Trump.

Mexicans were called on to elect 881 federal judges, including nine members of the Supreme Court, as well as hundreds of local judges and magistrates.

An election for the remainder of the judiciary will be held in 2027.

Critics have warned that asking citizens to elect judges will erode democratic checks and balances and leave judges more vulnerable to criminal influence.