Mexico’s new president announces top positions, but her new cabinet includes some familiar faces

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s new president announced her appointees to key positions Thursday, but hopes for a new approach were dashed by the reemergence of old faces within the party. new wardrobe.

President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum announced that Rosa Icela Rodriguez, who led outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s failed security strategy, will be the next interior secretary.

It is the most important post in Mexico’s domestic politics, tasked with managing negotiations with protesters and Mexico’s 32 powerful state governors. Sheinbaum will take office on October 1.

As expected, Omar García Harfuch—who was Mexico City’s police chief when Sheinbaum was mayor—was appointed to head Mexico’s increasingly powerless Department of Public Security, the top law enforcement post.

García Harfuch is credited with bringing down the capital’s homicide rate, although the numbers he claims are disputed. He has earned respect after he survived a dramatic ambush by a drug cartel in 2020 who injured him and left three other people dead.

Sheinbaum has pledged to remove control of the National Guard, Mexico’s main law enforcement agency, from the Ministry of Public Security and place the 117,000-member force in the hands of the military. García Harfuch will have control only over the country’s prisons when he takes office.

But it was Rodríguez’s appointment that turned heads: a terrible public speaker with no experience in campaigns or as an elected official, she breaks with the long-standing practice of appointing seasoned political professionals – often former state governors – to the post of interior minister, where negotiation skills are essential.

Rodriguez is also closely identified with López Obrador’s strategy: “Hugs, not bullets” The lack of a fight against drug cartels and the militarization of law enforcement have been the main reasons why López Obrador has failed, during his six years in office, to significantly reduce Mexico’s record number of murders.

Sheinbaum belongs to López Obrador’s Morena party and has pledged to continue all of its policies.

In June, she also asked López Obrador’s treasury secretary, Rogelio Ramírez de la O, to keep his job. His position is similar to that of a finance minister, as he controls spending and budgets.

Of the four top cabinet positions, only Harfuch is a new face in the federal government. In June, Sheinbaum named Juan Ramón de la Fuente as foreign secretary.

De la Fuente, 72, is a former academic who served as Mexico’s ambassador to the United Nations under López Obrador and is known for his calm, diplomatic demeanor.

Sheinbaum also allowed several other officials who served under López Obrador to remain in the cabinet.

There were hopes that Sheinbaum, a former scientist known for her love of data-driven policymaking, would break with López Obrador’s habit of choosing old allies known more for their loyalty than their expertise for cabinet posts.

In June, Sheinbaum appointed Luz Elena González, an expert in sustainable development, as the next energy secretary. However, that position is almost secondary in importance to that of head of the state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos.

The top job in Mexico, defense secretary, has yet to be announced. That’s partly because Mexico’s highly secretive military has never had a civilian in the position. In the past, army generals would submit a list of generals they would accept for the job, and the new president would choose from among them.