<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>A woman will head Mexico's Supreme Court for the first time after Norma Lucia Pina was elected president on Monday amid controversy over plagiarism allegations against a rival candidate.</b></span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 63-year-old constitutional law specialist welcomed the opportunity to "break what seemed like an inaccessible glass ceiling."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pina, who has defended the right to abortion and pledged to fight gender-based violence, won the votes of six of the 11 Supreme Court judges.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The election to replace Arturo Zaldivar was shaken by accusations that Supreme Court justice Yasmin Esquivel, another hopeful for the post, plagiarized her graduation thesis in 1987.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Esquivel is seen as close to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who rejected the claims as an attack against him but pledged to recognize the outcome of the vote.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There's no way we're going to declare war on the judiciary," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Esquivel denied the allegations, prompted by an analysis by a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and accused another lawyer of copying parts of her thesis.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Local media reported Monday that the Mexico City Prosecutor's Office had cleared Esquivel of plagiarism, though there was no official announcement. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">bnbd24/kh</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div>