Claudia Sheinbaum addressing the Zócalo on October 1. Mexico’s first female president has vowed to continue and deepen the project of the Fourth Transformation started by her predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador. – Picture: MORENA
By Pablo Meriguet
On October 1, 2024 Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo was sworn in as the new president of Mexico. Her inauguration speech highlighted the historical role of women and Indigenous peoples in Mexico’s history, as well her commitment to continue the project led by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO).
On June 2, 2024, Claudia Sheinbaum of the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) won Mexico’s presidential elections in a landslide: she achieved almost 60 percent of the valid votes, while the candidate of the alliance between the PRI, PAN, and PRD (once the three most important parties in Mexico) Xóchitl Gálvez Ruiz, achieved just 27.5 percent of the votes. Even further behind was Jorge Álvarez Máynez of Movimiento Ciudadano, who obtained a meager 10.32 percent.
Her victory was not a surprise. Even though some pollsters close to the right-wing parties tried to position the idea that Gálvez was getting closer to Sheinbaum a few days before the election, most Mexicans knew that AMLO’s successor would win the elections.
Her performance as head of the Mexico City government had positioned her as one of the most popular politicians in the country. In addition, near the end of his presidential administration, AMLO enjoyed a popularity that few Mexican presidents had when leaving office, so it was expected that Mexicans would trust a MORENA government again.
What was a surprise was that she obtained more than double the votes of the second-place candidate, and almost six times more than the third-place finisher. This was reflected in the many MORENA senators who won a seat in the legislature.
The current president of Mexico knows that such numbers imply an enormous challenge and a gigantic expectation. Perhaps that is why this October 2 she changed a bit the demure tone she had assumed before the media. Already in the gigantic Zócalo Plaza, she spoke to tens of thousands of demonstrators who filled the streets, making it clear that they were her priority before protocol activities.
This was the first massive act of the new president who read a hundred government commitments in a speech that condemned corruption and pledged to repay the debt that the State has to the victims of crime and the State itself (as is the case of the 43 students of Ayotzinapa).
In her inauguration speech to Congress, along with several presidents of the region, Sheinbaum was seen to be more assertive and effusive, showing that her government would not be a passive one, but a proactive one. She did show herself next to the charismatic AMLO to demonstrate continuity and closeness, which also gives a clear message: “History and the people have judged AMLO, one of the greats, the most important leader and social fighter in modern history, the most beloved president, the best president of Mexico, who started the peaceful revolution of public life.”
Sheinbaum also spoke directly to private and foreign capital when she assured that investments would be secure in the country: “I say it clearly: be certain that the investments of national and foreign shareholders will be safe in our country.”
This, in a way, shows that she will maintain the austere attitude of her predecessor; she also wanted to show that there will be no major conflicts with large Mexican economic groups and foreign investors.
Something in which Sheinbaum wants to distance herself from AMLO has to do with state projects that could have a big impact on the environment. Sheinbaum is an environmental engineer and a respected academic, which is why, according to her inaugural speech, she seems to want to pay more attention to the construction of mega-projects. Perhaps this is why she said she intends to invest more than other governments in scientific and technological development, as well as in renewable energy.
One of the most important aspects of her speech was her effusive and clear claim in favor of women’s rights. She declared: “It is the time of women. For a long time we women were annulled, many of us were told as children a vision of history that made us believe that the course of humanity was only led by men…In 503 years of history for the first time, we women reached the presidency. And I say we are here, because I am not alone, we are all here…Those who could have raised their voices and did not do so are here. Those who have had to keep quiet and then shouted alone have arrived. The Indigenous women arrive. Our aunts who found in their solitude the way to be strong. To the anonymous women, anonymous heroines, who from their homes, the streets, or workplaces, fought to see this moment. To our mothers who gave us life and then returned to give us everything.” It was especially symbolic that the presidential sash was placed by another woman, the academic Ifigenia Martinez, president of the Chamber of Deputies.
Another aspect that should be highlighted is that Sheinbaum, directly and indirectly, highlighted the role of Indigenous peoples in Mexican history. Whether it was by the design of the dress she wore during the day, the handing over of a “baton of command” by certain Indigenous communities in the Zócalo Plaza, or her words in favor of the knowledge developed by Indigenous peoples, the president wanted to highlight the importance of a past of oppression and domination, but also of resistance and struggle. This is especially important considering she did not invite the King of Spain who has already refused to apologise for the acts committed by Spain during the Conquest of America. Concerning this matter, one of Sheinbaum’s first statements to the press consisted of apologising, on behalf of the Mexican State, for the Tlatelolco Massacre, where the State murdered dozens of students on October 2, 1968. This certainly seems to be a message to the Spanish Crown, in the sense that a ruler should not be afraid to assume the historical responsibility of the institution he commands.
Sheinbaum will now have to move from expectation to the reality of a government that, it seems, will maintain broadly the same course as the previous administration, although with important caveats that remain to be seen if they can be realised.
* This article was first published on Peoples Dispatch