The passing of the presidential sash each six years is at all times an essential and symbolic second in Mexico.
However on Tuesday, when it was carried on the shoulders of Claudia Sheinbaum, the primary lady to carry the nation’s highest workplace, it was certainly a milestone in additional than 200 years of contemporary Mexican historical past. A historic watershed.
It has been an extended highway for Mexico Metropolis’s first feminine mayor to as soon as once more break the glass ceiling in Mexican politics on the nationwide stage.
As loud cheers of “President!” rang out inside and out of doors the congressional chamber, she raised her fists in triumph, savoring the second.
In her first speech as president, she thanked her political mentor and predecessor within the prime job, Andres Manuel López Obrador, calling him “a very powerful determine in Mexico’s trendy historical past.” Political leaders and social warriors”.
She mentioned he left workplace with “the best love of the individuals.”
From this perspective, she was not fallacious. López Obrador is so beloved by his supporters that his approval rankings in his closing days in workplace have been increased than any president in Mexican historical past.
There isn’t any doubt he is left an enormous gap for her, however President Sheinbaum was fast to emphasize that she was not intimidated.
“Now could be the time for ladies,” she mentioned, drawing applause from ruling celebration lawmakers. “Girls are right here to form the future of our lovely nation.”
As López Obrador lays out his presidential agenda, it’s as soon as once more clear that López Obrador presents a broad image for Mexico.
She urged individuals to make use of chilly exhausting details to evaluate what has been achieved over the previous six years.
“How did 9.5 million Mexicans escape poverty?” she requested.
“How is unemployment decreased? Creates better well-being? Minimal wage will increase repeatedly, however inflation doesn’t?
Her conclusion is easy: via “Mexican Humanism,” the identify she gave to the political challenge she and her mentor López Obrador have pursued collectively for the higher a part of twenty years.
In fact, her critics will query the rosy image she paints of the Mexican financial system.
However Scheinbaum pledged to “combine medical providers right into a free public well being care system of the very best high quality” and create an extra 300,000 increased schooling locations in new public excessive faculties and universities.
“Well being and schooling are rights of the Mexican individuals, not privileges or commodities,” she insisted.
Clearly, there can even be vital challenges forward.
Mexico’s drug warfare continues to spiral uncontrolled, significantly within the states of Sinaloa and Chiapas.
The aftermath of a bitter break up within the Sinaloa drug cartel has led to fierce gun battles within the streets of the northern metropolis of Culiacan that weren’t simple for any chief to include.
Sheinbaum’s critics say her expertise in bettering safety within the capital can not merely be utilized on the federal stage — particularly, they argue, if she follows López Obrador’s lead and chooses to not sort out drug trafficking head-on. group.
In fact, the shadow of her ex can be looming massive.
The person she calls “brother, good friend, companion” insists he’ll retire from political life and revel in retirement on his ranch in Chiapas.
However some suspect he could also be too obsessive about politics to shake it off solely.
Sheinbaum’s ascension to the presidency is the fruits of her years at his aspect, and her illustrious profession from scholar activist to local weather scientist to mayor of Mexico Metropolis is now full and she or he has been sworn in because the nation’s chief.
It has been a exceptional journey in itself – and she or he insists it is only the start.
“I am a mom, a grandmother, a scientist, a girl of religion, and now, I am the president!” she mentioned on the finish of her inaugural deal with.
She pledged to control for all Mexicans and to make use of her “data, power, my previous and my life” to defend Mexico.
From the beginning, she’ll be beneath stress to succeed on her personal.
Nonetheless, the hundreds of thousands of Mexican women and men who voted for her will definitely give her a bit of time and the advantage of the doubt.
“I will not allow you to down,” she informed them.