Mexican Sheinbaum takes office and makes history as the first Jewish female president

Mexican President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico City, Mexico, September 25, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Raquel Cunha

When Claudia Sheinbaum takes her oath of office on Tuesday, formally becoming Mexico’s first Jewish female president, she will adopt a new government logo that nods to the aspirations of young girls.

“A young Mexican woman will be the emblem of the Mexican government,” Sheinbaum wrote in a social media post a day earlier, unveiling the logo with a young woman in profile raising a Mexican flag, her hair pulled back pulled into a ponytail, similar to the incoming president’s signature look.

Sheinbaum has embraced her historic achievement in one of Latin America’s more socially conservative countries, which has been ruled by a string of 65 men since gaining independence from Spain two centuries ago.

The former mayor of the sprawling Mexican capital, Sheinbaum, has drawn support from the popularity of outgoing left-wing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, her political benefactor dating back nearly a quarter century.

But as the former climate scientist steps out of her predecessor’s shadow to lead the world’s largest Spanish-speaking country, Sheinbaum will also face doubts and opposition from critics alarmed by the outgoing president’s 11th push for reform.

The reforms, which came into effect last month, include a judicial overhaul that will replace all of the country’s judges over the next three years with new lawyers elected by popular vote.

“Our hard-won democracy will for all practical purposes be transformed into a one-party autocracy,” former President Ernesto Zedillo wrote in a guest essay for Britain’s Economist Magazine on Sunday.

Critics of Lopez Obrador and Sheinbaum fear that their ruling Morena party has too much power and that democratic control over executive power will be undermined.

The implementation of the judicial review will be in the hands of Sheinbaum, who will also face a widening government budget deficit, which could limit popular social spending and costly crime-fighting initiatives, at a time when the economy is expected to only will grow modestly.

Sheinbaum, 62, pledged continuity on the campaign trail and now faces the balancing act of advancing Lopez Obrador’s state-oriented economic policies, especially on natural resources such as oil and minerals, while also making progress on of issues considered his weaknesses. points such as the environment and safety.

She also makes history as the first president of Jewish heritage in the predominantly Roman Catholic country.

A BIGGER LANDSLIDE

Sheinbaum’s inauguration caps an unlikely 40-year climb that has brought the daughter of activist academics to the presidential palace.

Six years ago, she made history as the first elected female mayor of Mexico City. Until she resigned last year to run for president, Sheinbaum was known as a data-driven executive who won plaudits for cutting the megacity’s homicide rate in half through security spending on an expanded police force with higher salaries to increase.

She has vowed to replicate the strategy across Mexico, where drug cartels exert widespread influence.

Sheinbaum has also pledged to continue generous social spending on old-age pensions and youth grants, even as the government’s 2024 budget deficit is estimated at nearly 6 percent of gross domestic product.

While she has expressed interest in increasing renewable energy projects, she has also said she will ensure dominance of Mexico’s state oil and energy companies while opposing privatizations.

In 1995, Sheinbaum earned her doctorate in energy engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and then pursued an academic career, including a stint on the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which later shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the former U.S. vice president President Al Goor.

She began her political career in 2000, when Lopez Obrador, then newly elected mayor of Mexico City, appointed her as his environmental chief, charged with improving air quality, highways and public transportation in the smoggy capital.

Sheinbaum was the main spokesman for Lopez Obrador’s first campaign for president in 2006, which he narrowly lost.

In 2015, she was chosen to lead Mexico City’s largest district, Tlalpan, and three years later became mayor of the capital. That was the same year that Lopez Obrador’s third bid for the presidency ended in his own triumph, winning by a margin of more than 17 million votes.

Last June, Sheinbaum surpassed her mentor’s margin of victory, receiving more than 19 million more votes than her nearest competitor, who was also a woman.