Mexico’s first female president promises ‘no return to drug war’

Mexico’s first female president vowed there will be no return to the “irresponsible” drug war between the government and the cartels.

Claudia Sheinbaum, 62, pledged more intelligence and investigations to tackle rising drug-related violence during her swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday.

“There will be no return to the irresponsible drug war,” she said.

Tackling organized crime remains a key political issue in Mexico, following the “hugs, not bullets” strategy of its left-wing populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

After taking office in 2018, Mr. Obrador declared Mexico’s war against drug cartels “over” and began a policy to address the “root causes” of the violence.

Ms. Sheinbaum’s comments came after northern Mexico was plunged into chaos following weeks of deadly gun battles between two factions of the Sinaloa cartel, the country’s largest and most powerful drug gang.

At least 50 people have been killed in the clashes, which started in the town of Culiacan on September 9 and have since spread to other parts of Sinaloa.

Mexico’s drug war is believed to have started in 2006, when Felipe Calderón, then president, sent troops to the state of Michoacán to tackle drug violence.

In her inauguration speech at the Mexican Congress, Ms. Sheinbaum also said: “It is time for transformation, it is time for women.

“I am a mother, a grandmother, a scientist and a woman of faith, and from today, by the will of the Mexican people, the president.”

She then promised limits on food and fuel prices, and expanded cash handout programs for women and children.

Ms. Sheinbaum was blessed and anointed with herbs and incense by Ernestina Ortiz, a “spiritual guide,” who told her, “You are a voice for all of us who for a long time had no voice.”

A Native elder then presented Ms. Sheinbaum with a wooden Native “authority staff.”

After her speech, lawmakers shouted “Presidenta! Presidenta!”, using the feminine form of president in Spanish for the first time in more than 200 years of Mexican history as an independent country.

Sheinbaum, a scientist by training and former mayor of Mexico City, won a landslide victory in June.

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