Claudia Sheinbaum becomes Mexico's first female president

MEXICO CITY —

Claudia Sheinbaum, a climate scientist who moved from academia to the difficult world of politics, took office Tuesday as Mexico's first female president.

Her inauguration breaks a political glass ceiling in a country with a long tradition of machismo, where women were only given the right to vote in 1953.

“Women have been left out for a long time,” Sheinbaum said after taking the oath of office at a ceremony in Mexico City. “As children, we were told a version of the story in which the protagonists were men…Now we know that presidents can be women.”

The crowd erupted in shouts: “Presidenta!”

Sheinbaum has taken power at a tumultuous time worldwide and in Mexico, where she will face perennial problems of violence and migration as well as the enormous expectations raised by her hugely popular predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

López Obrador presented the symbolic presidential sash — embroidered with the Mexican tricolor and embossed with the national coat of arms interspersed with gold thread – in the San Lázaro Palace, seat of the Mexican Congress.

The ceremony was delayed as both Sheinbaum's car and the car carrying López Obrador to Congress were mobbed by well-wishers lining the streets. News crews on motorcycles pursued both cars between buildings decorated with banners bearing Sheinbaum's image.

President Claudia Sheinbaum speaks in Congress after taking the oath of office in Mexico City.

Scattered groups of demonstrators gathered to protest against López Obrador's controversial judicial reform, which Sheinbaum has supported. But the groups were vastly outnumbered outside congressional headquarters.

“I came here very early because I wanted to feel the emotions of a woman receiving the presidential sash, something I never thought I would experience again,” said Karina Gutiérrez, 42, an accountant. “I'm really emotional. I want to cry. We finally have a female president in a nation that has always been dominated by men. It’s a historic day.”

Sheinbaum, a leftist who has vowed to prioritize the country's working class, won the statewide vote in a landslide on June 2. She will be the 66th president of Mexico since independence from Spain in 1821 and will serve a single six-year term, as provided for by Mexican law.

Sheinbaum, the granddaughter of immigrants from Eastern Europe, will also be the first person of Jewish descent to serve as president of a predominantly Roman Catholic nation.

She is a protégé of López Obrador, who brought her out of academic anonymity to become his environment minister in 2000, when he was mayor of Mexico City.

Under his guidance, Sheinbaum was elected mayor of the capital district of Tlalpan, and in 2018 – the same year López Obrador assumed the presidency – she became mayor of Mexico City.

The ceremonial transfer of power was attended by heads of state from around the world, including the left-wing leaders of Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Guatemala, who also witnessed the highly staged ceremony. First Lady Jill Biden was in attendance, as does California Governor Gavin Newsom.

A smiling woman with blonde hair in a dark suit waves while holding hands with a man in a suit, tie and hat.

Sheinbaum will speak later in the Zócalo, Mexico City's central square.

Sheinbaum ran under the banner of the ruling National Regeneration Movement, known as Morena, a party registered by López Obrador just a decade ago that quickly became the country's dominant political force.

The party has a de facto supermajority in the Mexican Congress and in governorships in 24 of 32 Mexican states.

Sheinbaum has vowed to continue the sweeping “transformation” promised by her predecessor, who significantly expanded welfare benefits for students and the elderly, increased the military's power and pushed for a series of controversial constitutional reforms. Among them is an incendiary plan to elect federal judges that has sparked nationwide protests.

Among the challenges the new president will face is perhaps none greater than the increasing power of organized crime, which controls much of the country and has expanded from cross-border drug trafficking to extortion, kidnapping and other schemes.

Some observers worry that her predecessor's heavy spending on social programs and huge infrastructure projects could land her government in dire economic straits. But Mexico benefits from its proximity to the United States and the presence of manufacturers focused on exports to its northern neighbor.

The new president will also have to deal with the ongoing challenge of illegal immigration as Mexico has become a major transit point for U.S.-bound migrants from around the world.

Although López Obrador is often critical of U.S. policies, he worked closely with Washington and the Biden and Trump administrations to crack down on illegal migration, using police and soldiers to turn back migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border. Sheinbaum is widely expected to continue this collaboration in a US election year in which immigration has become a dominant campaign issue.

A man with gray hair, a dark coat and a red tie waves at a press conference

Towering over her presidency is the imposing figure of 70-year-old López Obrador, who has vowed to retreat to his family ranch in the southern state of Chiapas and stay out of the political strife that has consumed his adult life. He leaves office with an approval rating of over 70% – much of it coming from poor and working-class Mexicans who have seen increases in the minimum wage, pensions and welfare payments under his leadership. But the country is deeply divided over his often polarizing statements and style.

Sheinbaum has dismissed any suggestion that she could be a puppet for her retired mentor.

“They make things up as if I were in the shadow of López Obrador,” she told Spanish newspaper El País. “That's not true. I am the person who will rule.”

She is widely seen as a pragmatist who lacks the charisma, oratorical skills and combative nature of the outgoing populist president. She says her science background will serve her well when tackling issues like energy that have caused controversy here. López Obrador has focused on reviving the moribund state oil giant Pemex, while investing little in alternative energy sources.

“I've always said that as a scientist you always have to ask why and look for solutions,” Sheinbaum said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times last year. “And something similar happens in politics.”

A woman in a white jacket smiles as she poses for a photo with other women

As one of three siblings, Sheinbaum comes from Mexico City. Her late father was a businessman and chemical engineer and her mother is a biologist and prominent academic.

Her parents were active in the 1968 student movement, best known for the infamous Tlatelolco massacre, in which Mexican security forces killed scores of protesters in the capital.

As a high school student, Sheinbaum took part in protests against the exclusion of students, many of whom were poor, from higher education. While studying at the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), she was part of a movement against a plan to increase the public institution's fees.

She studied physics there and later completed her doctorate for four years at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.

Last year, Sheinbaum married Jesús María Tarriba, a physicist who works in the private banking sector. She has a daughter from a previous marriage.

Her election was hailed as a historic first in a country struggling with chronically high levels of violence against women.

After her election in June, she described her victory as a victory for all women.

“I didn’t arrive alone,” she told her supporters in her acceptance speech. “We’ve all arrived.”

Special correspondent Cecilia Sanchez Vidal contributed to this report.

Claudia Sheinbaum becomes Mexico's first female president

Similar Posts

Cincinnati Bengals CB Cam Taylor-Britt humbled after loss to Washington Commanders

Conyers BioLab fire “under control,” I-20 closed, nearly 17,000 people evacuated

Leave a Reply Cancel reply