Claudia Sheinbaum sworn in as Mexico's first female president

Claudia Sheinbaum sworn in as Mexico's first female president in historic inauguration

The former mayor of Mexico City is largely expected to follow in the footsteps of outgoing president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the leader of Morena, the ruling party.

 

Mexico swears in first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyDd__UhQ4E

 

Oct 3, 2024 #WorldNews #ClaudiaSheinbaum #Mexico

Mexico swore in its first female president in a historic inauguration. NBC News' Julio Vaqueiro reports on Claudia Sheinbaum's promises to strengthen women's rights and Mexico's economy.

 

 

Oct. 1, 2024, 9:00 PM GMT+13 / Updated Oct. 2, 2024, 6:41 AM GMT+13

By Nicole Acevedo

 

Claudia Sheinbaum officially took office Tuesday as Mexico's first female president and the first of Jewish heritage at a historic inauguration ceremony Tuesday afternoon.

 

At the Legislative Palace of San Lázaro in Mexico City, attendees swarmed Sheinbaum, taking selfies and greeting her, as she approached outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Ifigenia Martínez, president of Mexico's Chamber of Congress.

 

In a symbolic act of the transition of power between López Obrador and Sheinbaum, Martínez, whom many credit as a trailblazer for women in Mexican politics, handed Sheinbaum a presidential sash decorated with the colors of the Mexican flag.

 

Sheinbaum took her oath and addressed a room of more than 100 high-profile invitees, including U.S. first lady Jill Biden and the presidents of nearly a dozen African and Latin American countries, among others.

 

"For the first time, we women have come to lead the destiny of our beautiful nation," Sheinbaum said in Spanish in a lengthy speech in which she outlined the priorities of her presidential term, some of which include guaranteeing human rights and freedoms, as well as promoting peaceful foreign policies and expanding on her predecessor's social programs.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum receives the presidential sash during the inauguration ceremony at the Congress of the Union in Mexico City on Tuesday.Alfredo Estrella / AFP - Getty Images

Sheinbaum will later head to the National Palace in Mexico City's famed Zócalo, where thousands of constituents gathered to watch the inauguration on large screens placed across the main square.

Sheinbaum, a former mayor of Mexico City and a climate scientist, first made history three months ago when she defeated Xóchitl Gálvez of the Broad Front for Mexico and Jorge Álvarez Máynez of the Citizen Movement in a landslide election on June 2.

 

As a member of the governing Morena party, Sheinbaum is largely expected to follow in the footsteps of her mentor, López Obrador.

 

The leftist Morena party, which López Obrador founded, has dominated Mexican politics since 2018, when he was elected. López Obrador leaves office with an approval rating of nearly 80%, Noticias Telemundo reported. Welfare policies and social programs to reduce poverty and promises to end corruption helped solidify his popularity during his six-year term.

 

Sheinbaum vowed to carry on his biggest pledges — which also include combating the country’s high levels of violence by continuing López Obrador’s “hugs, not bullets” policy of not directly taking on criminal organizations that have gained control over large parts of Mexico as they fight for territory to traffic drugs into the U.S., make money from migrant smuggling and extort residents to fuel their illicit enterprises.

 

Still, crime rates remained high during López Obrador’s term, with at least 199,300 homicides and 51,700 persons reported missing from December 2018 to August of this year, Noticias Telemundo reported. Mexican government data has also shown that the strategy of López Obrador’s predecessors — pursuing drug lords in an all-out war — did not improve safety, either.

 

As Sheinbaum steps into power, she faces a battle to harness her predecessor’s popularity while making her own mark.

 

In addition to the violence crisis in Mexico, Sheinbaum also inherits a nation struggling with a lagging currency, a ballooning budget deficit and tensions with its biggest trade partners over a controversial judicial overhaul that will allow voters to elect judges.

 

Sheinbaum will also have an important role in resolving issues that are priorities for the U.S., such as immigration and foreign affairs, as well as determining the future of the trade deal that has made Mexico the U.S.’ largest trade partner.

 

Two Hispanic U.S. Cabinet members of Mexican descent, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Small Business Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman, attended Sheinbaum's inauguration with Jill Biden as part of the U.S. presidential delegation. They were also joined by fellow Mexican Americans Ken Salazar, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, and Rep. Nanette Barragán, D-Calif., chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, as well as White House Social Secretary Carlos Elizondo and Tucson, Arizona, Mayor Regina Romero.

Nicole Acevedo

Nicole Acevedo is a reporter for NBC Latino.

 

Mexico's first female president vows 'it's time for women'  2 October 2024

 

Will Grant

BBC Mexico correspondent

 

Reuters

Claudia Sheinbaum is Mexico's first female president in modern times

 

The passing of the presidential sash every six years is always an important and symbolic occasion in Mexico.

But on Tuesday, when it was placed over the shoulder of Claudia Sheinbaum - the first woman to hold the highest office in the country - it was truly an historic watershed moment in more than 200 years of modern Mexican history.

 

It has been a long road which led the first female mayor of Mexico City to break the glass ceiling in Mexican politics again, this time at national level.

To huge cheers of “Presidenta!” ringing out both inside and outside the congressional chamber, she raised her fist in victory, savouring the moment.

 

Reuters

There were cheers inside Congress, where the governing party has a majority

 

She began her first speech as president by thanking her political mentor and predecessor in the top job, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, calling him “the most important political leader and social warrior in Mexico’s modern history".

 

He leaves office, she said, with “the greatest love of his people".

 

On that point, she is not wrong. López Obrador is deeply beloved by his supporters and his popularity ratings in his final days in office were higher than those of any other president in Mexican history.

 

He undoubtedly leaves very big shoes for her to fill, but President Sheinbaum was quick to stress that she was not daunted.

 

“It is time for women,” she said to applause from the governing party’s lawmakers. "Women have arrived to shape the destiny of our beautiful nation."

 

As she set out her agenda as president, it was again clear that López Obrador's vision for Mexico had provided a broad blueprint.

 

She urged people to assess - using cold hard facts - what had been achieved over the past six years.

 

“How were 9.5 million Mexicans pulled from poverty?” she asked.

 

“How was unemployment reduced? Greater well-being created? The minimum wage repeatedly increased, but not inflation?”

 

Her conclusion was simple: through "Mexican humanism" - the name she gives to the political project she has shared with her mentor, López Obrador, for the best part of two decades.

 

Naturally, her detractors will contest the rosy image of the Mexican economy she painted.

But Sheinbaum promised to “consolidate the health service into the highest quality free public healthcare system” and to create a further 300,000 places in higher education in new public high schools and universities.

 

“Health and education are rights of the Mexican people, not privileges nor merchandise," she insisted.

 

Reuters

Women featured prominently in the public ceremony Sheinbaum attended in Mexico City's Zócalo square

 

There are clearly going to be major challenges ahead, too.

 

The drug war in Mexico continues to rage out of control, particularly in the states of Sinaloa and Chiapas.

 

The fallout from a bitter split in the Sinaloa Cartel has seen gun battles rage in the streets of the northern city of Culiacán and will not be easy for any leader to bring under control.

 

Sheinbaum's critics say her experiences in improving the security of the capital city cannot simply be applied at the federal level – especially, they argue, if she follows López Obrador’s approach and opts against tackling the cartels head on.

 

EPA

Loyal supporters of the outgoing president often portray him and Claudia Sheinbaum as saviours

 

Certainly the shadow of her predecessor will loom large.

 

The man she called “brother, friend, compañero” insists he will be stepping back from political life and enjoying his retirement at his ranch in Chiapas.

 

But some suspect he may be too addicted to politics to walk away from it entirely.

 

Sheinbaum's rise to the presidency is the culmination of her time at his side, her stellar career from student activist to climate scientist to mayor of Mexico City now complete that she has been sworn in as the nation’s leader.

 

It has been an extraordinary journey in and of itself – one which she insists is only just beginning.

 

“I’m a mother, grandmother, scientist, a woman of faith, and now, president!” she said as she wrapped up her inaugural speech.

 

She promised to govern for all Mexicans and put her “knowledge, strength, my past and my very life” to work to defend Mexico.

 

There will pressure on her to succeed in her own right from the very start.

 

However, the many millions of Mexican men and women who voted for her will surely grant her a little time and the benefit of the doubt.

 

“I won’t let you down,” she told them.

 

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

Mexico