From the instant former Mayor of Mexico City Claudia Sheinbaum declared her candidacy for the presidency, the outcome was rarely uncertain.
Her double-digit lead in the surveys would have provided her with the assurance that she was on the right track to create history as she criss-crossed the nation on commercial flights throughout the lengthy and often tedious campaign.
She has now achieved this feat, becoming the first woman to serve as the president of Mexico by a significant margin.
It is a momentous occasion for both Mexico and her. She has already held the position of Mexico City’s inaugural female mayor. In a few months, she will assume the position of President of the National Palace, succeeding her mentor, the departed President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who was known by his initials, Amlo.
She will forever be remembered as the woman who broke the glass ceiling in Mexican politics, irrespective of the trajectory of her political career or the consequences of her six years in power. That is a significant accomplishment, given the country’s profoundly ingrained patriarchy and entrenched machismo.
However, Mexicans may be excused for questioning the nature of her presidency after the campaign pamphlets are discarded and the billboards featuring her image are removed. In a campaign that was replete with speeches and words, there was a dearth of policy detail and governance specifics.
She frequently reiterated her fundamental premise on the campaign trail: that she would construct the “second floor” of the “Fourth Transformation,” which is the political initiative of her ally, Mr. López Obrador.
President López Obrador and his supporters refer to his movement as the “Fourth Transformation” or “4T” because they compare it to three transformative moments in Mexican history: Independence in 1810, the Reform War (and separation of church and state) of 1858, and the Mexican Revolution in 1910.
It is unsurprising that opponents contend that Mr. López Obrador and, by extension, Ms. Sheinbaum have delusions of grandeur in advocating for such a title. However, the 4T has become a symbolic representation of a social agenda that has garnered significant popularity throughout Mexico, including universal pensions, student grants, and family stipends. Although there is still pervasive deprivation in many regions, the program has alleviated destitution for an estimated five million individuals across the nation.
In an interview conducted in the eastern state of Veracruz, she stated to the BBC, “The fundamental objective of this transformation is to distinguish between economic and political power.” “Economic power has its path, but government must be directed towards the poor in Mexico.”
She stated that President López Obrador established the project’s foundations and constructed the initial floor. “Now, we are going to build on the changes he made to the country.”
“It means more rights, a welfare state, education, health, access to housing, and that a living wage is a right, not a privilege,” said the representative. “That is the difference between neoliberalism and our model, which we call Mexican Humanism.”
In essence, she stood on a platform of continuity, promising to reinforce President López Obrador’s agenda. Her victory demonstrates that the proposal was endorsed by a substantial majority of the Mexican electorate.
Nevertheless, her opponents, particularly the second-placed candidate, Xóchitl Gálvez, claim that the 4T is nothing more than populism. Additionally, she proposed that Ms. Sheinbaum would not be her own woman and would exist under the authoritarian influence of her mentor.
Obtain Amlo by voting for Sheinbaum, her detractors recommended.
However, it is not a given that she will slavishly emulate the actions of her popular predecessor, as some Mexican commentators appear to anticipate. There are numerous recent instances in Latin America where a purported disciple has defied expectations by forging a path of their own.
The accusation is dismissed by Ms. Sheinbaum herself. “I will govern with the same principles as Mr López Obrador, and that’s a good thing for Mexicans,” according to her statement to the BBC.
An urbane technocrat from a well-to-do Jewish family, whose maternal ancestors escaped the Holocaust, she presents a stark contrast to Amlo. Their rhetorical approaches are vastly different. He delivers his arguments with flair, captivating his audience, whereas she is more measured and concise.
She has concluded her doctoral thesis in California and is fluent in English. She was a distinguished environmental scientist who was a member of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) prior to her political career.
Consequently, she is expected to be more at ease on the global stage than her predecessor, whose success is partially attributable to his direct interaction with ordinary individuals, particularly in indigenous regions and his native state of Tabasco.
Mr. López Obrador, on the other hand, maintains that he has no intention of interfering with her administration. He asserts that he is eagerly anticipating retiring at his property in the southern state of Chiapas.
Nevertheless, the majority of individuals desire to observe a substantial development in one critical area of Ms. Sheinbaum’s performance: security, regardless of the direction their relationship takes after he departs the office.
Despite the fact that her campaign was launched and her victory celebration were both held in Mexico City’s main plaza, the Zócalo, even her most devoted supporters have expressed their desire for additional measures to be taken to combat violent crime in the drug-ravaged nation.
According to Ms. Sheinbaum, her objective is to decrease the murder rate from 23.3 homicides per 100,000 residents to approximately 19.4 per 100,000 by 2027. That would rank Mexico on a par with Brazil.
She emphasizes her tenure as mayor of Mexico City, during which she is believed to have implemented a 50% decrease in the city’s homicide rate, according to statistics.
Nevertheless, an academic who served as a security adviser to her campaign stated that her team recognized that strategies that were effective for managing a city may not be applicable at the national level.
This was the most violent election in modern Mexican history, as if any reminder were required of the high stakes.
Alfredo Cabrera was touching hands with his supporters as he approached the stage to deliver his concluding speech during the final moments of his campaign for mayor of the small community of Coyuca de Benítez. Suddenly, an assailant emerged from behind him and fatally shot the opposition candidate in the back of the head.
Approximately 15 shots were fired as the throng dispersed in a state of complete panic. The security forces executed the assailant on the spot.
The campaign saw the assassination of scores of candidates, with Cabrera being the final one to be killed. His demise was a violent and horrifying conclusion to this most brutal of ballots. Claudia Sheinbaum was on stage in Mexico City, instigating her supporters to “make history” as he lay in a pool of blood in western Mexico.
That phase has concluded. She must now succeed where the men who preceded her have failed in order to control drug cartel violence.