Hugo Aguilar Ortiz is the virtual winner in the race to preside over the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), in Mexico’s first judicial elections.
The results of the 2025 Judicial District Counts by the INE (National Institute of Statistics and Census) show the Mixtec candidate as the figure who will take the reins of the country’s highest court.
He has already announced that he will fight for the vindication of Indigenous peoples, and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum believes that with Aguilar on the Supreme Court, the privileges of the wealthy who felt untouchable have ended.
Who is Hugo Aguilar, the virtual president of the Court?
Hugo Aguilar Ortiz was born in 1973 in Villa de Guadalupe, a community of no more than 700 people nestled in the Mixtec region of Oaxaca. By chance, while in high school, he met a litigator who was in charge of caring for indigenous prisoners who didn’t speak Spanish and with whom it was almost impossible to communicate. There, he knew his calling was to be a lawyer, a career he pursued until his master’s degree was only at schools in his state.
This is a doubly unprecedented event. On the one hand, because his appointment will be the result of the first popular vote held to renew the judiciary in Mexico; on the other, because he will be the first jurist of indigenous origin to occupy the presidency of the SCJN, a position that has traditionally been held by jurists from large cities or with studies in the capital and abroad.
Furthermore, suppose Aguilar’s victory is made official. In that case, he will be only the second justice originally from Oaxaca to head the country’s Supreme Court, since Benito Juárez did so in the mid-19th century before becoming president. The Mixtec Minister
Today, the lawyer, who doesn’t hesitate to call the Magna Carta an “anti-Constitution” that excludes the customs and traditions of Indigenous peoples, is about to become the president of the country’s highest court, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN).
“The justice system has practically not existed for Indigenous peoples. The justice system has functioned to serve other interests. Their rights, their forms of organization, their traditions, their cultural elements have not been included in the Constitution and, consequently, have not been part of the justice system,” said Aguilar Ortiz in an interview during the campaign.
The lawyer was registered as candidate number 34, but, thanks to the alphabetical order and the gender division, his name headed the list in the male candidate section of the ballot, a privileged position among more than 30 options for citizens.
What is Hugo Aguilar’s career?
At 52 years old, he is fluent in both Spanish and Mixtec. He earned a law degree from the Benito Juárez Autonomous University of Oaxaca, where he also completed a master’s degree in Constitutional Law.
Since the beginning of his professional career, he has been dedicated to the legal defense of indigenous peoples, first as an assistant in the Office of the Attorney General for the Defense of Indigenous Peoples and later as a legal advisor in agrarian cases, regulatory systems, and territorial conflicts.
He began the fight for indigenous rights, uniting the aspirations of other sectors that were also fighting for their voices and identities to be heard.
With this ideal of justice, he advised and defended individuals and communities. He has collaborated with state, national, and international bodies such as:
When Gabinó Cué became governor of Oaxaca in 2010, Aguilar Ortiz served as legal director of the State Secretariat of Indigenous Affairs. He also served as general coordinator of Indigenous Rights at the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI), where he promoted consultation processes and reforms regarding the rights of Indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples.
