Claudia Sheinbaum is sworn in as Mexico’s first female president

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Claudia Sheinbaum was sworn in 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 inauguration speech, Sheinbaum said she came to power accompanied by all the women who have struggled in anonymity to make their way in Mexico, including “those who dreamed of the possibility that one day, regardless of whether we were born women or men, we would achieve 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 former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s “Hugs not Bullets” strategy of tackling root causes and not confronting the cartels, other than 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 continued popularity of her political mentor, Lopez 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.

After the inauguration, Sheinbaum appeared at a mass gathering in Mexico City’s main colonial-era plaza to participate in a ceremony involving an all-women committee representing Mexico’s approximately 70 indigenous groups.

Sheinbaum was blessed and anointed with herbs and incense by Ernestina Ortiz, a “spiritual guide,” who told Sheinbaum, “You are a voice for all of us who for a long time had no voice.” A Native elder then presented Sheinbaum with a wooden Native “authority staff,” like those carried by community leaders.

After the ceremony, Sheinbaum said she would push for a total ban on the re-election of any official — a big promise considering her party has now passed a law making all judges eligible for election. That could indicate that Mexico will have a new crop of inexperienced judges every few years.

Lucia Ruiz, a 42-year-old mother of three, was among thousands who tried to reach the main square to attend the rally. She said she hopes Sheinbaum can combat the country’s high rate of violence against women.

“She’s going to represent us,” Ruiz said. “We’ve always been ruled by men, and they think we’re incapable, but we’re not. We are the heads of our families.”

Lopez 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.

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

She will wield formidable power because Lopez 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 Maria Guadalupe Murguia, 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 Pacific coast resort of Acapulco, which was swamped last week by Hurricane John, killing at least 17 people along the coast around the resort. cost my life. 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 Joaquin Guzman Lopez were captured in the United States after flying there. a small plane on July 25.

Lopez 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 Lopez 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.

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

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 Lopez 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.