Claudia Sheinbaum, an environmental scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, was handily elected Mexico’s first female president on Sunday, marking a historic moment in a nation plagued by gender-based violence and sexism.
With about 40% of the ballots tabulated, Mexico’s electoral body predicts Sheinbaum will win with 58% to more than 60% of the vote. Her closest challenger, Xóchitl Gálvez, is anticipated to earn between 26% and 28% of the vote, with the other opposition candidate, Jorge Álvarez Máynez, receiving between 9%-10% of the vote.
In her victory address to supporters, Sheinbaum said that both opponents had surrendered and phoned to congratulate her on her triumph. “I will be the first woman president of Mexico,” she promised the audience.
Outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who is generally regarded as her political mentor, shared his congrats on X, previously known as Twitter.
Sheinbaum has been the front-runner for the presidency for almost a year. In a nation with one of the worst rates of murder against women in the world, Sheinbaum’s triumph highlights women’s political achievements.
The 61-year-old climate scientist was a member of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change team that shared the Nobel Peace Prize with former US Vice President Al Gore in 2007. Sheinbaum, whose ancestors fled the Holocaust, will now wield the country’s most important job.
Elena Poniatowska, 92, is one of Mexico’s most prominent authors, having documented decades of women’s history in the nation. “I’ve always believed in women,” Poniatowska told NPR just days before the election. “I believe that is not a dream. I believe the war has been won.”
Despite Sheinbaum’s unprecedented win, many Mexican voters regard it as a referendum on the previous six years of López Obrador, often known by his initials AMLO.
He is one of the most contentious — and beloved — personalities in Mexican history: a folksy populist who has enacted social programs that have pulled millions out of poverty, while opponents accuse him of undermining democratic institutions and boosting the military.
Ignacio Morales voted for Sheinbaum on Sunday because she has López Obrador’s support and Morales believes she is “perfect.”
“I don’t have much time left in my life, but I will support him until the end,” said Morales, 77, who is retired. Morales reeled out a series of explanations: López Obrador has launched “marvelous projects” like as new rail lines and oil refineries; he provides a monthly pension to senior Mexicans; and, most significantly, he cares for the poor.
According to Mexico’s constitution, presidents may only serve one six-year term.
She is López Obrador’s political protégé. She began her political career as his environmental minister after being elected mayor of Mexico City in 2000. She has been steadfastly loyal ever since, even supporting his pro-oil energy agenda despite her environmental credentials.
Sheinbaum lacks López Obrador’s personality and public appeal, but she is known for being analytical, methodical, and demanding. Most notably, she has pledged to uphold López Obrador’s policies and popular social initiatives, like as a universal pension benefit for elderly and cash transfers to low-income households.
“Claudia represents the continuation of AMLO,” said Norma Bautista Herrera, a vegetable vendor at a Mexico City market. Following López Obrador’s victory in 2018, Bautista Herrera started receiving monthly payments of $660 pesos (about $38) to maintain her 11-year-old daughter. With that money, she purchases household items such as soap, eggs, sugar, and Clorox.
Gálvez, Sheinbaum’s closest presidential challenger, is an Indigenous, pro-business tech entrepreneur who has represented various conventional opposition parties. Despite her engaging personal narrative, Gálvez was unable to remove herself from the corruption and disillusionment that voters identified with those parties.
Many of those who voted for Gálvez were driven more by her predicted rupture with López Obrador and the political strength of his Morena party than by her campaign pledges. They are concerned about Lopez Obrador’s efforts to weaken judicial independence, as well as his security agenda, which has resulted in record killings.
“He’s a dictator, and Sheinbaum is his puppet,” Almarosa Anaya said, standing outside a voting station in Mexico City’s affluent Roma Norte area with her two grown daughters. López Obrador, according to her, wants to transform Mexico into a communist nation “like Venezuela and Cuba.”
These elections are also notable for another reason: they were among the most violent. More than 30 candidates were slain before to these elections.
Voting continued as usual in the little hamlet of San Nicolás Tolentino, Puebla state. But at a neighboring church, family and friends gathered for Jorge Luis Huerta Cabrera’s funeral.
Huerta was running for city council as a Green Party candidate when he was killed late Friday. As people voted, Huerta’s coffin was brought across town. Church bells rang, and fireworks blazed in the noon light.
“No one knows who is next,” Huerta’s father, José Huerta Moctezuma, stated.
His kid, he said, had always told him he was destined for politics. “He was hardheaded,” he remarked. “He did what he wanted.”
In the end, he said, a competing party member shot him to death.
“We need a reform that changes the social fabric, that brings peace and justice, because it’s not fair that we are forced to live this way.”
When Sheinbaum enters office on October 1st, she will be confronted with this escalating violence, as well as a number of other critical challenges.
She has a large mandate but confronts considerable hurdles.
She must address the greatest budget deficit since the 1980s, the cartels’ expanding influence, and the constantly complex relationship with the United States.