Climate scientist Claudia Sheinbaum becomes Mexico’s first female president

Claudia Sheinbaum elected president of Mexico.

Photo: AP

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Claudia Sheinbaum was sworn in on Tuesday as Mexico’s first female president. She benefited from enthusiasm for her predecessor’s social programs, but also faced challenges such as persistently high levels of violence.

After a smiling Sheinbaum took the oath of office on the floor of Congress, lawmakers shouted “Presidenta! Presidenta!” For the first time in Mexico’s more than 200 years of history as an independent country, the feminine form of president is used in Spanish.

The 62-year-old scientist-turned-politician is hosting a country with a number of immediate problems, including a sluggish economy, unfinished construction programs, mounting debt and the hurricane-ravaged seaside resort of Acapulco.

In her speech, Sheinbaum said that with her arrival comes all the women who struggled in anonymity to find their way to Mexico, including “those who dreamed of the possibility that one day, regardless of whether we would be born female or male , realize our dreams and desires without our gender determining our fate.”

She made a long list of promises to cap gasoline and food prices, expand cash handout programs for women and children, support business investment, housing and the construction of passenger railroads. But any mention of the drug cartels that control much of the country was brief and near the end of the list.

Sheinbaum offered little change from outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s “Hugs not Bullets” strategy of tackling root causes and not confronting the cartels, beyond promising more intelligence work and investigations. “There will be no return to the irresponsible drug war,” she said.

Sheinbaum emerged victorious in June with nearly 60% of the vote, thanks in large part to the enduring popularity of her political mentor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. She has pledged to continue all his policies, even those that strengthened the military’s power and weakened the country’s checks and balances.

López Obrador took office six years ago, declaring “For the good of all, the poor first,” promising a historic change from the neoliberal economic policies of his predecessors. Sheinbaum promised continuity from his popular social policies to controversial constitutional reforms of the judiciary and National Guard implemented during his final days in office.

Despite her promise of continuity, Sheinbaum is a very different personality: a cautious scholar and ideological left-winger, in contrast to the outgoing president’s friendly, everyday appeal.

“López Obrador was an enormously charismatic president and that charisma often allowed him to cover up political mistakes that Claudia Sheinbaum does not have the opportunity to do,” said Carlos Pérez Ricart, a political analyst at the Mexican Center for Economic Research and Education. “So where López Obrador was charismatic, Claudia Sheinbaum will have to be effective.”

She will wield formidable power because López Obrador’s Morena party controls both houses of Congress. But the country remains deeply polarized between the outgoing president’s rabid fans and nearly a third of the population who deeply resent him.

“If we want a strong government, the checks and balances must also be strong,” said opposition Senator María Guadalupe Murguía, suggesting that an all-powerful military and an out-of-control ruling party could come back to haunt Mexico. “Remember,” she said, “no one wins everything, and no one loses forever.”

Sheinbaum does not inherit an easy situation.

Drug cartels have tightened their grip on much of Mexico, and her first trip as president will be to the flood-hit Pacific coast resort of Acapulco.

Hurricane John, which struck last week as a Category 3 hurricane and then resurfaced in the ocean and struck again as a tropical storm, brought four days of incredibly heavy rainfall that killed at least 17 people along the coast around Acapulco. Acapulco was devastated by Hurricane Otis in October 2023 and had not yet recovered from the blow when John struck.

Sheinbaum also faces intense violence in the cartel-dominated northern city of Culiacan, where factional fighting within the Sinaloa cartel broke out after drug lords Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López were captured in the United States after flying there. a small plane on July 25.

López Obrador has long tried to avoid confrontation with Mexico’s drug cartels and has openly appealed to the gangs to keep the peace among themselves, but the limitations of that strategy have become abundantly clear in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, where gun battles have raged. the streets of the city. Local authorities and even the military — which López Obrador has relied on for everything — have essentially conceded that the fighting will not end until cartel bosses decide to put an end to it.

But that’s just the latest hotspot.

Drug-related violence is on the rise from Tijuana in the north to Chiapas in the south, forcing thousands of people to flee.

Although Sheinbaum inherits a massive budget deficit, unfinished construction projects and a rapidly growing bill for her party’s cash-out programs — all of which could collapse financial markets — perhaps her biggest looming concern is the possibility of a victory for Donald Trump in the November elections. 5 US presidential elections.

Trump has already promised to impose 100% tariffs on cars made in Mexico. While that would likely violate the current U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal, there are other things Trump could do to make Sheinbaum’s life difficult, including his promise of mass deportations.

Relations with Mexico’s northern neighbor were already tense after López Obrador said he was putting relations with the US embassy “on pause” following public criticism of the proposed judicial review.

At her inauguration, Sheinbaum reinforced the free trade agreement with the United States and Canada, saying “we know that economic cooperation strengthens the three nations.”

There are areas where Sheinbaum could try to take Mexico in a new direction. For example, she has a Ph.D. in energy engineering and discussed the need to address climate change.

But on Tuesday she said she would limit oil production to 1.8 million barrels per day, which would be more than what the troubled state-owned company currently produces. “We will promote energy efficiency and the transition to renewable energy sources,” she said.