Claudia Sheinbaum campaigns during the election.
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MEXICO CITY — Claudia Sheinbaum, an environmental scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, takes office Tuesday to become the 66th president of Mexico. First female leader. Sheinbaum, who He won the election in June By an overwhelming majority, he assumes the presidency amid high expectations and enormous challenges, including… Endemic cartel violence A large national deficit.
Popular political protector Outgoing President Andrés Manuel López ObradorSheinbaum has a reputation for being analytical, disciplined, and calm. She campaigned on a promise to continue López Obrador’s legacy — a complex legacy that is difficult to fit into an ideological box. Supporters praise his popular social programs to help the poor. His critics accuse him of undermining the country’s nascent democracy. Here are five things to know about Sheinbaum:
She is the first female president of Mexico
Sheinbaum’s presidency represents two milestones: she is the first female president in the history of Mexico and also the first female president in the history of Mexico First with the Jewish heritage.
In a conservative country led by men for more than two centuries, Sheinbaum’s victory highlights the importance of women The progress achieved by women in the political field. It is also notable given Mexico’s issues with gender-based violence, as it has one of the highest rates of gender-based violence Murder against women In the world. Sheinbaum said that as president she would create a prosecutor’s office to combat femicide, a measure she implemented when she was mayor of Mexico City. But she evaded clarifying her position on abortion rights, and feminist activists criticized her campaign for lacking gender policies.
Sheinbaum’s election is also notable for her Jewish heritage. Her grandparents immigrated to Mexico from Lithuania and Bulgaria. Sheinbaum says she is proud of her ancestors but does not belong to any religion.
Its rise, however, is remarkable, given that Jews make up less than one percent in a country with an overwhelmingly Catholic population, one of the largest in the world.
She is a climate scientist
The 62-year-old has a PhD in energy engineering and studied in the early 1990s at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Northern California. She was part of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that shared the Nobel Peace Prize with former US Vice President Al Gore in 2007. Sheinbaum began her political career as Environment Minister in López Obrador’s government after he was elected mayor of Mexico City in 2000. He was loyal to Unwaveringly ever since, even as he sidelined green energy projects and championed fossil fuels in an attempt to secure energy independence. Sheinbaum’s environmental platform represents one of López Obrador’s biggest pivots. It calls for increasing electric-powered public transportation, enhancing the use and production of electric vehicles, and producing renewable energy through solar, wind, and hydroelectric power. Notably, Lopez Obrador actively blocked renewable energy projects during his presidency. Meanwhile, Sheinbaum praised one of López Obrador’s signature initiatives: a new multibillion-dollar oil refinery known as So who? The project, which Sheinbaum praised as “majestic,” is plagued by cost overruns and is still far from full operation. The question remains how Sheinbaum will deal with the refinery.
Mexico’s President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum and outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador attend an anniversary ceremony honoring victims of the 1985 and 2017 earthquakes, at the Zocalo in Mexico City.
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She is Lopez Obrador’s political protector
Sheinbaum won the presidency largely because of her close ties to López Obrador. Lopez Obrador is one of the most popular and divisive figures in Mexican history, implementing social programs that helped millions of people out of poverty while weakening democratic institutions and empowering the military.
But while Lopez Obrador is popular and charismatic, Sheinbaum is seen as analytical and data-driven. Their differences have become apparent during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Even as Lopez Obrador downplayed testing and turned to crowds of people, Sheinbaum expanded Mexico City’s testing capacity and urged social distancing.
In the big picture, Sheinbaum promised to expand on López Obrador’s vision for Mexico. In a sign of their alignment, she appointed to her cabinet several of López Obrador’s close associates, including his finance minister, his public security minister, his former foreign minister, and his current foreign minister.
One of Sheinbaum’s challenges will be to create a political identity that is not directly linked to López Obrador.
It has a massive political mandate
Sheinbaum enters office with a massive political mandate. Its political coalition has an overwhelming majority in the lower house of Congress and nearly two-thirds in the Senate.
But if López Obrador gave Sheinbaum political leverage, he also burdened her with significant challenges. It will also have to address a growing budget deficit fueled by his government’s spending on social programs, the Dos Bocas oil refinery and a massive tourist train project.
It also faces a shifting system of governance. One of López Obrador’s last major actions as president was to push through a constitutional amendment that would impose sanctions on the country– Removal of all 7,000 Mexican judges from their positions. Under the amendment, judges will be elected rather than appointed, a reform that Lopez Obrador says is necessary to rid the judiciary of corruption and impunity.
Critics say the reform erodes checks and balances on presidential power and creates uncertainty in the business world, which in turn has caused the Mexican peso to fall against the dollar. Among Sheinbaum’s first tasks as president will be to reassure financial markets while overseeing the implementation of judicial reform.
Claudia Sheinbaum greets supporters during the final campaign rally for her presidential candidate to represent the ruling Morena party, in Mexico City, August 26, 2023.
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Sheinbaum’s positions on security and immigration
During the presidential campaign, opinion polls showed that the number one issue for Mexican voters was security. Organized crime has become very powerful They extort everything from gas stations to avocado farmers and trucking companies. Sheinbaum says she will focus on addressing the root causes of crime and violence, similar to what happened with Lopez Obrador.
She also pledged to increase the number of National Guard soldiers and create education and employment programs for youth.
While immigration is not an issue for voters in Mexico, it is a major concern for voters in the United States. Successive Republican and Democratic administrations have pressured Mexico to strengthen law enforcement and prevent migrants from reaching the southern US border. Political analysts say Sheinbaum, like Lopez Obrador, is likely to work with the United States to deter migration, largely because it has become a powerful cudgel for negotiating other pressing issues, such as trade agreements.
