Claudia Sheinbaum will take office as the first female president of Mexico

The former mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, will take office this Tuesday, October 1 as the first female president of the Mexican nationafter securing a landslide victory at the polls that ensured the continuity in power of the ruling Morena party.

“For the first time in 200 years of the Republic, I will become the first female president of Mexico,” Sheinbaum said hours after confirming herself as the winner of the presidential elections with almost 36 million votes.

The 62-year-old scientist is the first woman to win a general election in the United States, Mexico or Canada. This October 1st she will become the president of the second largest economy in Latin America, in a mandate that will last six years.

Heads of state and representatives of governments from the region and around the world have already begun to arrive in the Mexican capital, including the presidents of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, and of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The United States delegation will be led by first lady Jill Biden. A statement from the Department of Homeland Security announced on Monday that Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas would not be part of the delegation due to the country’s recovery efforts after the devastating passage of Hurricane Helene.

During the last four months since her victory, Sheinbaum toured the country alongside the outgoing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to whom she is the political heir. The president-elect promised to continue the legacy of the leftist López Obrador, although with slight adjustments.

The new president of Mexico faces challenges such as insecurity, corruption, stopping violence linked to organized crime, continuing to stimulate the economy, promoting renewable energy and reducing public debt.

In the international arena, Mexico plays an important role in the dynamics of Latin America. In that sense, The post-electoral crisis in Venezuela presents the most complex challenge at the regional level.

He also insisted that he will maintain a relationship of mutual respect with the United States, which will also choose a new leader next November.

US President Joe Biden, who leaves office in January 2025, said on Monday during an event at the White House that he will soon meet with Claudia Sheinbaum. Both countries share one of the most complex and active borders in the world. They are also united by other commercial and political interests.

Tensions with Spain

What Sheinbaum did not count on was starting her mandate entangled in a disagreement with Spain. Tensions arose after the exclusion of King Felipe VI from the inauguration actsfor the monarch’s refusal to apologize for the conquest, as Andrés Manuel López Obrador requested in 2019. The president of the government Pedro Sánchez did receive an invitation to the event.

The friction between both countries deepened after a statement from the president-elect, in which she justified the decision not to invite the Spanish king, and statements from Sánchez where he spoke of a “diplomatic crisis” and expressed his “frustration” at the disagreement between two governments considered progressive.

However, Sheinbaum has been open in recent days to overcoming tensions and said that he trusts that his government will be a “starting point” for two countries with a “solid” relationship of friendship and important economic, social and cultural ties, to find “paths of understanding.”

[Con información de AP y Reuters]

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