2024-10-02 08:44:36
Almost four months after her overwhelming electoral victory, Claudia Sheinbaum will be sworn in this Tuesday as president of Mexico, becoming the first woman to lead this great Latin American nation, hit by the violence of organized crime.
The 62-year-old former mayor of Mexico City will take office in the presence of numerous foreign dignitaries, such as the Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and the first lady of the United States, Jill Biden.
“It is time for women and transformation,” Sheinbaum has said on numerous occasions, in a country with a heavy history of discrimination and gender violence, where about 10 women are murdered daily.
But having a woman as president is no guarantee of a greater focus on women’s rights, says María Fernanda Bozmoski, deputy director of the Adrienne Arsht center for Latin America, part of the US think tank The Atlantic Council.
“When we think about other women leaders in the region, that doesn’t necessarily translate into women’s issues being a priority,” she told AFP, warning that Sheinbaum faces other pressing issues such as security, energy and foreign policy. .
Sheinbaum will be sworn in before Congress, officially becoming the leader of the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world – with 129 million inhabitants – before leading a popular celebration in the Zócalo, Mexico City’s main square.
A high-profile figure who will be conspicuous by his absence will be King Philip VI of Spain, whom Sheinbaum refused to invite, accusing him of not recognizing the damage caused to indigenous peoples by colonization, between the 16th and 19th centuries.
Spain responded by announcing that it would not participate in the takeover, despite its strong economic and historical ties with Mexico.
– Heir to López Obrador –
A career scientist, Sheinbaum achieved victory by promising to continue the aggressive reform agenda of leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, her co-partisan and mentor.
The outgoing president left the presidential palace after a single period of six years (in Mexico there is no re-election), despite having a popularity close to 70%, explained mainly by his policies focused on helping the poorest Mexicans.
He inherits Sheinbaum the leadership of a nation where murders and kidnappings are daily and bloodthirsty drug cartels control vast portions of the territory.
The growing criminal violence, linked to drug trafficking and gangs dedicated to extortion, among other crimes, leaves a balance of more than 450,000 murders in the country since the end of 2006.
Although Sheinbaum has said he will maintain his predecessor’s controversial strategy of “hugs, not bullets,” based on using social policies to combat the causes of crime, some experts expect changes in his approach.
“It will be a modified version of hugs not bullets that will depend more on intelligence and will therefore be more effective in achieving results,” said Professor Pamela Starr, a specialist in Mexico at the University of Southern California.
Such a strategy, applied by Sheinbaum when he governed Mexico City, “was very successful in reducing crime,” he added.
The new president will also have to face the consequences of a controversial and recent judicial reform, which will make Mexico the only country in the world to elect all its judges by popular vote.
López Obrador claimed that this change was necessary to clean up a “rotten” judiciary that serves the interests of the political and economic elite.
The constitutional reform, which critics argue will make it easier for politicians and organized crime to influence the courts, has angered foreign investors as well as its main trading partners, the United States and Canada.
Even so, experts believe that Sheinbaum will maintain good relations with whoever wins the US elections next November, especially if it is Democrat Kamala Harris, who would also be the first female president of her country.
Although there will still be “some tension and friction,” especially around migration, the reality is that both countries recognize the importance of the bilateral relationship, Bozmoski said.
Sheinbaum has already proven herself to be “a strong leader” and is likely to be “much more pragmatic and perhaps even less belligerent than her predecessor,” he added.
© Agence France-Presse