Who is Claudia Sheinbaum, first President of Mexico?

Jane Anderson
Jane Anderson
Who is Claudia Sheinbaum, first President of Mexico?

The left is in the spotlight in Mexico with the victory of Claudia Sheinbaum this Sunday, June 2, during the presidential elections.

This Sunday, June 2, Claudia Sheinbaum becomes the first woman to come to power in Mexico. Elected president, according to the National Electoral Institute, the candidate of the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) obtained between 58.3% and 60.7% of the votes. His main rival, Xochitl Galvezwon between 26 and 28% of the votes. The first count gives the government coalition led by Morena a large majority in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. But who is this 61-year-old woman who has just made history?

A committed woman

Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo was born on June 24, 1962 in Mexico City. Daughter of activist parents in the 1960s, a period when students and guerrillas sought to overthrow the “perfect dictatorship” of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), dominant from 1930 to 2000.

In 1968, the context was tense in Mexico. Thousands of Mexicans take to the streets to demand democratic change, and the military massacres hundreds of students. This event leaves an indelible mark in the history of the country. The same year, the authorities expelled his mother from the university where she taught for having participated in the protest movement. This episode reinforces her parents’ activism and profoundly influences Claudia’s youth.

Very quickly, she began her militant actions. At 15, Claudia volunteers to help mothers searching for their missing children amid the chaos in the country. Years later, in 1991, she made the front page of Stanford Dailyprotesting a visit by then-Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari with a sign demanding “Fair Trade and Democracy Now!” “. Coming from a family of European Jews, she takes up the slogan “the poor first” of the outgoing president, targeting in particular discriminated indigenous communities.

A diligent activist, she continues to get involved even during her pregnancy. “She was always up for it, especially for meetings,” remembers Guillermo Robles, a friend of her master’s.

Claudia Sheinbaum, a seasoned scientist

Like her mother, a cell biologist, and her father, a chemical engineer, Claudia chose a scientific path. Holder of a doctorate in energy engineeringshe is a brilliant student. Thanks to a stay at the American University of Berkeley, in California, she speaks English fluently.

She contributes in particular to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2007. His area of ​​expertise is climate change mitigation.

His entry into politics

Claudia Sheinbaum entered politics in 2000 serving as Secretary of the Environment for Mexico City. Alongside Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, now outgoing president, was mayor between 2000 and 2006. He entrusted him with the environment portfolio, strategic in the megacity. She is at the origin of the second floor of the “peripheral” to facilitate traffic on one of the urban highways that cross Mexico City. Claudia Sheinbaum also launched bus lanes and bike lanes.

She becomes mayor twice. THE Tlalpan district welcomes him as mayor, in the south of Mexico, between 2015 and 2017. She is faced with the collapse of Rebsamen college during the earthquake of September 19, 2017, killing 26 people.

Mayor of Mexico City between 2018 and 2023she is faced with a new catastrophe. An overhead bridge collapsed as the metro passed in the south of the city on May 3, 2021, also killing 26 people. She embodies one of the figures against the insecurity of the capitalworking in particular on a “comprehensive strategy for treating the causes” including “more and better police, intelligence, investigations and coordination”in his words.

Today, now president, Claude Sheinbaum must ensure the fight against the violence of cartels and gangs. This fight constitutes a major challenge. And for good reason, this election took place in a tense context. Thirty-eight candidates were killedhighlighting the threat posed by cartels. Two people were killed on Sunday at polling stations in the state of Puebla.

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