By Emiliano Rodríguez Mega
Claudia Sheinbaum will take office Tuesday, the first woman and Jewish person to lead Mexico in the country’s more than 200-year history as an independent nation.
A former climate scientist and Mexico City mayor, Sheinbaum won in a landslide in general elections in June, and is succeeding her mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, as president of the world’s largest Spanish-speaking nation — and the United States’ top trading partner.
Sheinbaum, a leftist, campaigned on a vow to continue the legacy of her predecessor, and her win was seen by many as a clear vote of confidence in López Obrador and the party he started, Morena.
In Mexico, a country steeped in machismo where 7 in every 10 women have experienced some form of violence, Sheinbaum’s inauguration is a milestone and a symbol for many of women’s empowerment.
But she also takes office in a country with the largest budget deficit in decades, a deepening security crisis and an ever more powerful governing party that has moved to profoundly redesign the justice system and other aspects of public life through a series of constitutional amendments proposed by López Obrador.
Here is what to know about Mexico’s new president.
Who is Claudia Sheinbaum?
Sheinbaum’s list of achievements is long: She has a doctorate in energy engineering, participated in a United Nations panel of climate scientists that was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize and governed the capital, one of the largest cities in the hemisphere.
Sheinbaum, 62, calls herself “obsessive” and “disciplined.” Her staff describe her as a tough boss with a quick temper who inspires both fear and adoration — someone more comfortable quietly getting things done than selling herself or her achievements.
To many people, she is largely perceived as a thrills-free, almost aloof politician — the opposite of López Obrador, who founded and built Morena around his outsize persona and undeniable charisma.
The descendant of Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews who emigrated to Mexico in the 20th century, Sheinbaum is also the country’s first Jewish president — a watershed moment for some and a trivial detail for others who have seen her rarely discuss her heritage.
Analysts say Sheinbaum’s administration will try to blend her technocratic and pragmatic approach to governing with López Obrador’s populist rhetoric. At times, she pulled away from his policies. During the pandemic, she tested aggressively while he trusted in good-luck charms; when fighting crime, she invested in intelligence and the police while he relied on the military.
But during the campaign, she supported many of López Obrador’s most contentious policies, including a slate of constitutional changes that critics say would severely undermine democratic checks and balances. As a result, the new president has battled the perception among some Mexicans that she could be little more than a pawn of her mentor.
What challenges will she confront?
Sheinbaum will face pressure to show progress in the fight against increasingly powerful drug cartels, which retain their sway over large swaths of Mexico. While homicides declined modestly during the López Obrador administration, reports of extortion and disappearances have shot up since 2018. Killings, including spates of mass murders, are still near the highest levels recorded. And once peaceful regions, such as the southern state of Chiapas, have witnessed massive displacements caused by the invasion of organized crime.
In recent weeks, violence between warring factions of the Sinaloa cartel has caused a spike in deaths and kidnappings in northwest Mexico, bringing people’s lives to a standstill in cities such as Culiacán.
Sheinbaum will have little financial maneuvering room to fulfill her campaign pledges. Mexico’s budget deficit is nearing 6% of gross domestic product, the largest shortfall in the past 24 years. Pemex, the state-controlled oil giant, is now the world’s most indebted oil company, requiring multibillion-dollar bailouts.
What are her plans?
Besides continuing López Obrador’s infrastructure projects and keeping his popular anti-poverty programs, including a yearly increase in the minimum wage, Sheinbaum comes to office with her own plans.
She has announced that all women ages 60 to 64 will receive a cash payment; currently, old-age pensions are given to anyone 65 and older. She has said most children will receive a stay-in-school scholarship, which would be an expansion of a current social program. And starting next year, she said, 20,000 doctors and nurses would begin visiting the homes of senior Mexicans — an effort to reverse the massive drop in access to public health care seen in the past few years.
Unlike her predecessor, Sheinbaum also wants to expand renewable energy infrastructure and increase green technology. At the same time, she has vowed to rescue Mexico’s massively indebted oil company and support a costly $16 billion oil refinery that remains far from fully operational.
What will her relationship to the U.S. look like?
A real test for Sheinbaum’s leadership might come later this year once the outcome of the U.S. presidential election becomes clear.
A victory by Vice President Kamala Harris would likely represent an extension of the Biden administration’s relationship with Mexico, which has been marked by a tense yet sustained cooperation to beef up migration enforcement, counter drug trafficking and stanch the flow of U.S. guns that are fueling bloodshed south of the border. And some U.S. officials have said privately that they believe security coordination could improve with Sheinbaum.
But a second term by former President Donald Trump could ratchet up tensions between the two countries. Trump has threatened to impose tariffs if he wins the election. And he has proposed using U.S. military force against the drug cartels on Mexican soil — without the consent of Mexico’s government.
The plans risk rupturing the United States’ relationship with the Sheinbaum administration and curtailing other types of cooperation. Still, Sheinbaum and members of her government have told The New York Times that she is prepared to work with whichever candidate wins the U.S. election.
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