Claudia Sheinbaum takes oath as Mexico's first female president

MEXICO CITY — Claudia Sheinbaum will be sworn in Tuesday as Mexico’s first female president in more than 200 years of independence, promising to protect an expanded social safety net and fight for the poor like her predecessor but facing pressing problems.

The 62-year-old scientist-turned-politician will host a country facing a number of immediate challenges, chief among them stubbornly high levels of violence, a slowing economy and hurricane-battered Acapulco.

Sheinbaum won in June with nearly 60% of the vote, propelled in large part by the sustained popularity of his political mentor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

He took office six years ago declaring “For the good of all, first of all the poor” and promising a historic change from the neoliberal economic policies of his predecessors. Sheinbaum promised continuity of his popular social policies through the controversial constitutional reforms to the judiciary and the National Guard implemented during his final days in office.

Despite his guarantee of continuity, he is a very different personality.

“López Obrador was an extremely charismatic president and this charisma often allowed him to cover up certain political mistakes that Claudia Sheinbaum would not have the opportunity to make,” said Carlos Pérez Ricart, a political analyst at the Center for Economic Research and Education from Mexico. “So where López Obrador was charismatic, Claudia Sheinbaum will have to be effective.”

He doesn’t give her an easy situation.

Her first trip as president will be to Acapulco, a flood-hit resort town on the Pacific coast.

Hurricane John, which hit last week as a Category 3 hurricane and then resurfaced in the ocean and struck again as a tropical storm, brought four days of incredibly heavy rain that killed at least 17 people along the coast around Acapulco. Acapulco was devastated in October 2023 by Hurricane Otis and had not recovered when John hit.

Sheinbaum also faces raging violence in the cartel-dominated northern city of Culiacan, where factional fighting within the Sinaloa Cartel erupted after drug lord Ismael ” El Mayo » Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López were arrested in the United States after arriving by plane. a small plane on July 25.

López Obrador has long sought to avoid confronting Mexican drug cartels and has openly called on gangs to keep peace among themselves, but the limits of that strategy have become starkly evident in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state , where shootings rage. the streets of the city. Local authorities and even the military – which López Obrador relied on for everything – essentially admitted that the fighting would only end when cartel leaders decided to end it.

But that’s just the latest hot spot.

Drug-related violence stretches from Tijuana in the north to Chiapas in the south, displacing thousands of people.

As Sheinbaum inherits a huge budget deficit, unfinished construction projects and a growing bill for his party’s cash distribution programs – all of which could send financial markets tumbling – his biggest concern may be be the possibility of a victory for Donald Trump in the November elections. .5 American presidential election.

Trump has already pledged to impose 100% tariffs on vehicles made in Mexico. Although this would likely violate the current trade agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada, Trump could take other steps to make life difficult for Sheinbaum, including his promise of mass deportations.

Things with its northern neighbor were already tense after López Obrador said he was “pausing” relations with the US embassy following public criticism of the proposed judicial overhaul.

First lady Jill Biden struck an optimistic tone about relations with the new Sheinbaum administration, saying at a reception Monday that “under Dr. Sheinbaum’s presidency, I know we will continue to build a more prosperous, secure and more democratic – and will take necessary steps in our U.S.-Mexico Partnership.”

There are areas where Sheinbaum could try to take Mexico in a new direction. For example, she holds a Ph.D. in energy engineering and spoke about the need to combat climate change. López Obrador built a massive new oil refinery and invested money in the state-owned oil company. But its budgetary commitments do not leave it much room for maneuver.

Jennifer Piscopo, a professor of gender and politics at Royal Holloway University in London who has studied Latin America for decades, said Mexico electing its first female leader is important because it will show girls they can do it too, but it can also create unrealistic expectations. .

“Women first are powerful symbols, but they don’t gain magical power,” she said. “Especially when governance challenges are so great, expecting magical solutions overnight can also lead to outsized disappointment. »