Could some judicial election candidates be disqualified from running because they are “defenders of drug traffickers” (as one Morena party senator suggested)?
What does Mexico’s presidenta like to read?
They were among the questions President Claudia Sheinbaum responded to at her Wednesday morning press conference.
Are some judicial election candidates criminals?
A reporter noted that ruling party Senator and Senate President Gerardo Fernández Noroña said on Tuesday that some candidates vying to win judgeships at Mexico’s inaugural judicial elections on June 1 might not be suitable contenders as they may have criminal links.
The reporter asked the president whether there was still time for the National Electoral Institute to disqualify candidates.
“It depends on the superior chamber … of the Federal Electoral Tribunal,” Sheinbaum said.
She noted that the candidates for the elections have already been formally “selected” and “endorsed,” but added that “if there is any case in which it is found that [a candidate] … has some criminal relation or doesn’t have an 8 grade point average in their degree, as the constitution demands, [a complaint] can be presented.”
Sheinbaum said that from her “particular point of view,” a candidate “could” be disqualified if they are found to be an unsuitable or ineligible contender for a judgeship, even though they’re already on the ballot.”
“But all the proof would have to be presented, right?” she added.
Sheinbaum stressed that the Federal Electoral Tribunal will have the final say on the suitability of candidates.
One of the various criticisms of staging judicial elections is that drug cartels and other organized crime groups could effectively install judges by pressuring or coercing citizens to vote for their preferred candidates.
The elections are going ahead on the first Sunday in June thanks to the Congress’s approval of a controversial judicial reform last year.
Sheinbaum: Reading is ‘essential for the development of creativity’
On World Book and Copyright Day, a reporter asked the president to offer an opinion on data from the national statistics agency INEGI that shows that Mexican adults read an average of 3.4 books per year.
“We’re going to invite Paco Taibo … because there is a very significant effort to promote reading,” Sheinbaum said.
Paco Ignacio Taibo II is a writer, novelist and head of the government-affiliated non-profit publishing group Fondo de Cultura Ecónomica (FCE).
Sheinbaum noted that the previous federal government developed a National Reading Strategy in conjunction with the FCE, and said that her administration “wants to promote it more [with] reading clubs” and “reading groups.”
Estoy en las últimas revisiones del libro “Diario de una transición histórica”. Hoy terminé el prólogo; espero en unos meses ya pueda compartirlo con ustedes. pic.twitter.com/qq19Wx95QA
— Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (@Claudiashein) March 12, 2025
Sheinbaum posted an image of her working on her book, “Diary of a Historic Transition,” in early March.
Reading is “essential for the development of creativity, of minds with knowledge,” she said.
Sheinbaum noted that Taibo has sought to broaden Mexicans’ access to reading, including by endeavoring to make books cheaper to buy.
At the launch of the National Reading Strategy in 2019, Taibo said that “doors will be opened so that there is access to reading for millions of Mexicans who today don’t have access for different reasons.”
“We’re going to make books extremely cheap, we’re going to give books away. And not just that, we’re going to force the whole of the publishing industry to lower their prices,” the Spanish-born writer said.
Don’t call Sheinbaum ‘Mexico’s Merkel’!
Responding to a question from the same reporter about her personal reading habits, Sheinbaum revealed she is currently reading the autobiography of former German chancellor Angela Merkel.
“I’ve been reading it for a while because the truth is I sometimes don’t have a lot of time,” she said.
Merkel — chancellor between 2005 and 2021 and, like Sheinbaum, a scientist — released her book “Freedom: Memoirs 1954-2021” late last year.
“Although we don’t agree with her thinking on many things — she is a more conservative woman who promotes the neoliberal model, [Merkel] is a woman who had a very important significance, not just for Germany, but for Europe,” Sheinbaum said.
Although Merkel represented the conservative Christian Democratic Union of Germany and Sheinbaum represents the left-wing Morena party, the two leaders share some characteristics, including their training as scientists and the fact that both were elected as their respective countries’ first female heads of state.
Perhaps the most direct comparison came in the headline of a 2024 Deutsche Welle article that read: “An ‘Angela Merkel’ in Mexico: that’s Claudia Sheinbaum.”
Mexico’s president made it quite clear on Wednesday that she is not particularly fond of the comparison.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
