In 2016, Silvia Delgado García was one of the lawyers on the legal team that represented the Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. Soon she will be serving as a judge in the border state of Chihuahua.

An online vote count by the Chihuahua state electoral body showed that with 100% of the ballots counted Delgado obtained the second-highest number of votes in the June 1 judicial elections, with just over 23,000. She will be permitted to hold her judgeship in the local criminal court for up to nine years.

Prior to her election, the civil association Defensorxs (Defenders) said that Delgado is a “high-risk candidate” due to her past ties to El Chapo, a criticism that Delgado has rebuffed. 

Defensorxs’ president, Miguel Meza, has called on Delgado’s competitors to file a lawsuit to block her victory, maintaining that she does not meet a constitutional requirement that candidates be of “good reputation.” 

Meza said that Defensorxs has filed complaints about 20 winning candidates with the National Electoral Institute (INE) for allegedly not fulfilling the prerequisites for the judicial election.  

“The INE is de facto erasing the good reputation requirement established by the Constitution,” Meza said. “It’s not a whim, it’s a legal norm.” 

To date, the INE has not invalidated any candidacy, saying such decisions are the responsibility of the Federal Electoral Tribunal. The Federal Electoral Tribunal appears to disagree: It has previously ordered the INE to assess requests to remove dubious candidates from the ballot.

Critics of Delgado becoming a criminal court judge in the border city of Ciudad Juárez say the move could weaken the rule of law and pose a threat to democracy. 

Delgado has no prior experience in the judiciary. However, she does not see that — or her previous clients — as a conflict of interest with the position. 

“All my clients are equally important; there was no need to single any out,” she wrote on Facebook. “However, this shows that I have the character and the mettle needed to judge.”

When asked about those who question her eligibility for the position, Delgado said, “They speak out of ignorance; of course. It shouldn’t affect me [having been El Chapo’s lawyer]. My fellow lawyers know me, and they know I am a person of impeccable conduct.” 

With reports from Forbes México, El País and La Crónica de Hoy