‘We are living in a war’: Mexicans brace for violence ahead of judicial elections

Gadi Mokotov makes cars bulletproof. Living in Mexico City, he sees all sorts of demands for armored vehicles – from military trucks and secretive government vehicles to the Cadillacs of the capital’s high rollers and even 10-year-old Hondas. As criminal violence ticks up across the country, the lines for his services have grown longer – and more of his customized cars are coming back for repairs with bullet pocks and shattered windows. “We are living in a war,” he told CNN. “A war with the cartels.” Despite the efforts of successive governments to combat Mexico’s deeply entrenched cartels, tens of thousands of people are killed each year in crime-related deaths, according to government figures. Recently, Mokotov says one of his private clients in Guadalajara brought their Ford pick-up truck back to his shop with over 100 bullet marks, breaking down into tears, thankful to have survived an ambush. In years past, Mexico City was seen as a relatively peaceful oasis in the country. But even here, violence is spiking, with murders up over 150% compared to the same period last year, according to reporting by El Pais. Some attacks appear to be designed to send a message to Mexico’s political class. Last week, two aides to the mayor of Mexico City were gunned down on their way to work, in what authorities concluded was a “direct and highly planned attack.” A few days earlier, a mayoral candidate in the state of Veracruz had been shot and killed alongside three other people during a festive campaign march. As controversial national judicial elections approach on Sunday, some Mexicans across the country are preparing for the worst. According to Mexican think tank Laboratorio Electoral, last year’s legislative elections were the most violent on record, with over 40 candidates assassinated and hundreds more violent incidents, including attacks and kidnappings, largely attributed to cartels aiming to sway the vote and intimidate candidates. While the run-up to this year’s judicial vote has not been quite as bloody, a climate of fear persists. Across the country, at least four candidates have already abandoned their campaigns after receiving threats, per the international conflict research organization Crisis Group, and several judges have refused to campaign at all in areas controlled by cartels. Since 2012, at least 17 judges and six clerks have been killed in connection to their work, the group notes. A controversial vote One of the last acts of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in 2024 was to pass a constitutional reform mandating that all judges in the country be elected by direct vote – a radical shift from the system of internal appointments that had populated most of Mexico’s judiciary until then. The vote – seen by supporters as an effort to guarantee judges’ autonomy and impartiality – has been embraced by Lopez Obrador’s successor and protege, President Claudia Sheinbaum. On Sunday, June 1, thousands of candidates will be competing for the 881 seats up for grabs. César Gutiérrez Priego, a criminal lawyer in Mexico City running for a seat on the country’s Supreme Court, told CNN he’s been campaigning this spring with a bulletproof vest under his suit. “It doesn’t smell very good. But it’s something that I needed to do because I have to protect myself. I have two kids and I don’t want to just be another number,” he says of the vest, which he’s been wearing for two months on the campaign trail. Priego is no stranger to the potential for violence and corruption in Mexican politics – he decided to study law when he was in his 20s, after seeing his high-ranking military father, Mexico’s then-drug czar, imprisoned on what he says were false charges. Across the country, trust in the justice system has been broken over and over. Judges are widely perceived as among the most corrupt officials in the country, and many high-profile cases have never been concluded. In 2022, just 16 percent of criminal investigations overall were resolved, according to Human Rights Watch. Critics argue that addressing these issues requires far more profound change – including repressing organized crime and addressing corruption at the prosecutorial level and in government – than this week’s judicial vote can address. Both the Biden and Trump administrations in the US have warned against the judicial vote, voicing concern that making judges run for election could further expose them to political interests and to potential corruption or intimidation by organized crime groups. Still, Priego says he’s willing to try the new system – and to face the personal risk to his own life – for a shot at a seat on the highest bench in the country. “In Mexico, we have a big trouble here in our country. And what is that trouble? It’s that criminals take control of some places, some institutions, and one of those institutions is the justice system. And I believe if we change that, we can make the change that really helps people, because if you make the criminals go to jail, you can end impunity,” Priego tells CNN. Ending impunity, everyone agrees, is long overdue in the country – though not everyone agrees on how to get there. In his Mexico City garage, Mokotov sees daily evidence of the crisis, including a fast-growing number of first-time clients asking for his services: women looking to add bulletproof armor to humble commuter cars. It’s a request that leaves even him a bit disturbed, he says. “It’s not nice to see moms coming here saying ‘I need to protect my kids to go to school.’ They’re afraid for the lives of their kids.”