Mexico’s first female president vows it’s time for women

The passing of the presidential sash every six years is always an important and symbolic event in Mexico.

But on Tuesday, when it was placed over the shoulder of Claudia Sheinbaum — the first woman to hold the nation’s highest office — it was truly a historic turning point in more than 200 years of modern Mexican history.

It’s been a long road that has led to Mexico City’s first female mayor once again breaking the glass ceiling in Mexican politics, this time at the national level.

With loud cheers of “Presidenta!” Both inside and outside the conference hall, she clinked her fist in victory and enjoyed the moment.

She began her first speech as president by thanking her political mentor and predecessor in the top job, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, calling him “the most important political leader and social fighter in Mexico’s modern history.”

He leaves office, she said, with “the greatest love of his people.”

She’s not wrong on that point. López Obrador is well liked by his supporters and his popularity ratings during his final days in office were higher than those of any other president in Mexican history.

He is undoubtedly leaving her with very big shoes to fill, but President Sheinbaum was quick to emphasize that she was not deterred.

“It’s time for women,” she said to applause from ruling party lawmakers.

“Women have arrived to shape the destiny of our beautiful nation.”

As she laid out her agenda as president, it became clear once again that López Obrador’s vision for Mexico had provided a broad blueprint.

She urged people to assess – through hard facts – what has been achieved over the past six years.

“How were 9.5 million Mexicans lifted out of poverty?” she asked.

“How has unemployment been reduced? Created more well-being? The minimum wage has risen repeatedly, but not inflation?”

Her conclusion was simple: through “Mexican humanism” – the name she gives to the political project she has shared with her mentor, López Obrador, for the better part of two decades.

Naturally, her opponents will question the rosy picture of the Mexican economy that she painted.

But Sheinbaum pledged to “consolidate health care into a free public health care system of the highest quality” and create an additional 300,000 higher education places in new public high schools and colleges.

“Health and education are rights of the Mexican people, not privileges or commodities,” she emphasizes.

Clearly, there are also big challenges ahead.

Mexico’s drug war continues to spiral out of control, especially in the states of Sinaloa and Chiapas.

The fallout from a bitter split in the Sinaloa cartel has led to gun battles in the streets of the northern city of Culiacán that will not be easy for any leader to control.

Sheinbaum’s critics say her experiences improving the capital’s security cannot simply be applied at the federal level — especially if she follows López Obrador’s approach and chooses not to tackle the cartels head-on.

Certainly, the shadow of her predecessor will loom large.

The man she called “brother, friend, compañero” insists he is retiring from political life and will retire to his ranch in Chiapas.

But some suspect he may be too addicted to politics to walk away from it altogether.

Sheinbaum’s rise to the presidency is the culmination of her time at his side. Her incredible career from student activist to climate scientist to mayor of Mexico City is now complete and she has been sworn in as the country’s leader.

It has been an extraordinary journey in itself – one that she emphasizes is only just beginning.

“I am a mother, grandmother, scientist, a woman of faith, and now president!” she said as she concluded her inaugural address.

She promised to govern for all Mexicans and to use her “knowledge, strength, my past and my life” to defend Mexico.

There will be pressure on her from the very beginning to succeed on her own.

However, the many millions of Mexican men and women who voted for her will certainly give her some time and the benefit of the doubt.

“I won’t let you down,” she told them.

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