Mexico's Sheinbaum takes office, making history as first woman president

Mexico's President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico City, Mexico, September 25, 2024. Photo: Reuters
When Claudia Sheinbaum takes her oath of office on Tuesday, formally becoming Mexico's first woman president, she will adopt a new government logo that nods to the aspirations of young girls.

"A young Mexican woman will be the emblem of Mexico's government," Sheinbaum wrote a day earlier in a post on social media, unveiling the logo showing a young woman in profile hoisting a Mexican flag, her hair pulled back into a ponytail not unlike the incoming president's signature look.

Sheinbaum has embraced her historic feat in one of Latin America's more socially conservative countries, which until now has been ruled by a series of 65 men since winning its independence from Spain two centuries ago.

The former mayor of the sprawling Mexican capital, Sheinbaum has been bolstered by the popularity of outgoing leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, her political benefactor going back nearly a quarter century.

But as the former climate scientist steps out of her predecessor's shadow to lead the world's largest Spanish-speaking nation, Sheinbaum will also face doubts and opposition from critics alarmed by the outgoing president's 11th-hour reform drive.

Enacted last month, the reforms included a judicial overhaul that will over the next three years replace all of the country's judges with new jurists elected by popular vote.

"Our hard-won democracy will be transformed, for all practical purposes, into a one-party autocracy," wrote former President Ernesto Zedillo in a Sunday guest essay for Britain's Economist Magazine.

Critics of Lopez Obrador and Sheinbaum fear their ruling Morena party has too much power, and that democratic checks on executive power will be undermined.

The judicial overhaul's implementation will fall to Sheinbaum, who will also face a widening government budget deficit that could crimp popular welfare spending and costly crime-fighting initiatives at a time when the economy is only expected to grow modestly.

The 62-year-old Sheinbaum promised continuity on the campaign trail, and now faces the balancing act of advancing Lopez Obrador's state-centric economic polices, especially over natural resources such as oil and minerals, while also making progress on issues seen as his weak points like the environment and security.

She also makes history as the first president of Jewish heritage in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country.

A BIGGER LANDSLIDE

Sheinbaum's inauguration caps an unlikely four-decade climb that has taken the daughter of activist academics to the presidential palace.

Six years ago, she made history as Mexico City's first elected woman mayor. Until she stepped down last year to run for president, Sheinbaum was known as a data-driven manager, winning plaudits for reducing the megacity's homicide rate by half, by boosting security spending on an expanded police force with higher salaries.

She has pledged to replicate the strategy across Mexico, where drug cartels exert widespread influence.

Sheinbaum has also promised to continue generous social spending on old-age pensions and youth scholarships, even though the government's 2024 fiscal deficit is estimated at nearly 6% of gross domestic product.

While she has expressed interest growing renewable energy projects, she has also said she will ensure the dominance of Mexico's state-owned oil and power companies while opposing any privatizations.

In 1995, Sheinbaum earned her doctorate in energy engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and then pursued an academic career, including a stint on the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which later shared a Nobel Peace Prize with former US Vice President Al Gore.

She launched her political career in 2000, when Lopez Obrador, then-Mexico City's newly elected mayor, tapped her to be his environmental chief, tasked with improving the smoggy capital's air quality, highways and public transport.

Sheinbaum served as the chief spokesperson for Lopez Obrador's first campaign for president in 2006, which he narrowly lost.

In 2015, she was elected to run Mexico City's largest borough, Tlalpan, and became the capital's mayor three years later. That was the same year that Lopez Obrador's third bid for the presidency ended in his own triumph, winning by a margin of more than 17 million votes.

Last June, Sheinbaum bested her mentor's margin of victory, polling more than 19 million votes ahead of her closest competitor, who was also a woman.