( Spanish) — Claudia Sheinbaum is one of the four candidates for the presidential candidacy for the ruling National Regeneration Movement Party, Morena. For some of her militants, she is one of the clear favorites of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to succeed him in office. For others, however, there is still a process underway within the party, and not all the cards are cast.
Who is Claudia Sheinbaum?
Claudia Sheinbaum has a degree in Physics and earned an M.S. and Ph.D. in Energy Engineering. She was born in Mexico City in 1962, she has two children and a grandson. She would be about to marry, in her second marriage, with Jesús María Tarriba, whom she met, according to her, at the university, when they were both studying Physics.
As a public official, she served as Secretary of the Environment in the year 2000, during the government in Mexico City of López Obrador.
Since then, the relationship between Sheinbaum and López Obrador has been close.
She accompanied him in his three political campaigns towards the presidency, until 2018, when López Obrador was elected president and she was head of the Government of Mexico City, with 47% of the votes, 16 points more than his closest opponent.
After four and a half years in government, she left office, as she aspires for her party, of which she is a founder, to elect her as its candidate for the presidency in 2024.
For some pollsters, the road to a possible candidacy for Sheinbaum has some chiaroscuro.
Lorena Becerra, director of polls for the Reforma newspaper, says that 36% of people believe that Sheimbaum is President AMLO’s favorite, “so that is the signal that basically to the people who support President López Obrador, to those who have sympathy With Morena, it matters more to them, they are understanding this signal from the president and that is why we even see that among the people who sympathize with Morena a much greater preference for the head of government than for Marcelo Ebrard.”
A perception that —according to this expert— has boosted their political ambitions, but has also become a kind of straitjacket, since up to now it is not well known what their proposals are.
“It seems to me that she is also, let’s say, very concerned about pleasing the president, making him seem like she is his perfect disciple and that she is going to possibly emulate his presidency, his handling of everything,” says Becerra.
“It seems like she’s trying to please the president, but we don’t really know, right now, how she would govern as president, if she wins, I think that’s a problem. Another problem is also that in Mexico City she is having electoral difficulties, she did not do well in 2021, because they lost half of the mayoralties and also right now, the city is shaping up to be competitive.
Claudia Sheinbaum is committed to the good political moment that her party is experiencing at the hands of President López Obrador and has indicated that Mexico is prepared to have a woman in charge of the presidency.
But how true is that?
For Becerra, “in a country like Mexico, despite the fact that we have made very important advances in gender issues, we still see a lot of machismo, a lot of misogynistic visions and in a situation where insecurity and the presence of organized crime are issues of concern. a lot to the population.”
For Sheinbaum, however, as she pointed out in her last speech as head of government, the goal is to seek “to realize the dream of a woman leading the country.”
