Sheinbaum takes office as Mexico’s first female president | News

Nearly four months after her landslide election victory, Claudia Sheinbaum will be sworn in as Mexican president on Tuesday, becoming the first woman to lead the Latin American country at a time when it has been plagued by criminal violence.

The 62-year-old former mayor of Mexico City and ruling party heavyweight will take office in the presence of foreign dignitaries, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and US first lady Jill Biden.

“It’s time for women and transformation,” Sheinbaum has said repeatedly, in a country with a history of gender discrimination and violence where about 10 women or girls are murdered every day.

But having a female president is no guarantee of a greater focus on women’s rights, said Maria Fernanda Bozmoski, deputy director of the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center at the U.S. think tank Atlantic Council.

“When we think about other female leaders in the region, that doesn’t necessarily mean that women’s issues are a priority,” she told AFP, noting that Sheinbaum also faced other pressing issues such as security, energy and foreign policy.

Sheinbaum will take the oath of office in Congress before a ceremony in Mexico City’s main square, officially becoming head of state of the most populous Spanish-speaking country with 129 million people.

One prominent figure who will be conspicuous by his absence is Spanish King Felipe VI, whom Sheinbaum refused to invite, accusing him of failing to acknowledge the damage caused by colonization.

In response, Spain announced it would boycott the inauguration despite its strong economic and historical ties to Mexico.

– Popular predecessor retires –

Sheinbaum, a trained scientist, won in June on a promise to continue the left-wing reform agenda of outgoing leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a close ally.

Lopez Obrador is leaving the presidential palace after six years under the country’s one-term limit, although his approval rating hovers around 70 percent, largely thanks to his policies aimed at helping poorer Mexicans.

He leaves Sheinbaum to lead a nation where murders and kidnappings occur daily and where violent drug cartels control vast territories.

Since 2006, more than 450,000 people have been murdered here in rising criminal violence, much of it linked to drug trafficking and gangs.

While Sheinbaum has promised to stick with the outgoing president’s controversial “hugs not bullets” strategy and use social policy to fight crime at its root, experts expect some changes in her approach.

“It will be a modified version of hugs instead of bullets, more reliant on intelligence and therefore more effective at completing tasks,” said Professor Pamela Starr, a Mexico expert at the University of Southern California.

Such an approach by Sheinbaum when she was mayor of Mexico City “was very successful in reducing crime,” she said.

The new president must also deal with the fallout from a dispute over recently passed judicial reforms that will make Mexico the only country in the world to elect all judges by popular vote.

Lopez Obrador argued that the changes were necessary to clean up a “rotten” judiciary that serves the interests of the political and business elite.

The constitutional change, which critics argued would make it easier for politicians and organized crime to influence the courts, angered foreign investors and key trading partners the United States and Canada.

Nevertheless, experts believe that Sheinbaum will maintain good relations with whoever wins the US election on November 5th – especially if it is Democrat Kamala Harris, who would also be her country’s first female president.

While there will still be “certain tensions and tensions,” particularly around migration, the reality is that both countries recognize the importance of their relationship, Bozmoski said.

Sheinbaum has already proven to be “a strong leader” and will likely be “much more pragmatic, perhaps even less confrontational, than her predecessor,” she added.

Dr./md