Mexico’s first female president faces huge challenges

Claudia Sheinbaum won Mexico’s presidential election as expected, becoming the country’s first female president. After a bloody electoral process, many huge challenges now await us.

With two-thirds of the votes counted Monday, Sheinbaum had about 58 percent support.

Leading challenger Xochitl Galvez, who at the time had about 29 percent support, conceded defeat and called Sheinbaum to congratulate him.

“I will be the first female president of Mexico,” Sheinbaum said with a smile in his first comments once victory was certain.

Galvez is considered a very outspoken politician and businesswoman. She has local roots and represents a broad opposition coalition. In the polls, she has about 33% support.

The elections produced a new president and representatives to both chambers of Mexico’s National Congress, as well as local elections to elect representatives to more than 1,500 municipalities and 31 state legislatures.

37 political candidates killed

Now, the 61-year-old former Mexico City mayor faces many huge challenges.

Although Mexico has the second-largest economy in Latin America, more than a third of its citizens still live below the poverty line, and possibly more, according to official data.

The country has also been wracked by decades of violence, with powerful drug cartels gaining enormous power through naked brutality and bribery.

according to Reuters Thirty-seven candidates for political office were killed before and during the elections, and more than 800 attacks against candidates were registered.

Widespread violence

Over the past 20 years, more than 450,000 people have been killed and more than 100,000 are missing, with successive presidents having had little success in ending the violence.

About 80 people are killed every day, and kidnappings for ransom are a daily occurrence.

Although Mexico now has its first female president and women have become increasingly influential in politics and business in recent years, domestic violence remains widespread in a country characterized by a patriarchal culture, with police and the judiciary doing little to follow up on such cases.

scary

– Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington said the spread of organized crime and drug cartels are the most dire problems Sheinbaum must address.

– He said it would be difficult for her to gain support for her economic and socio-political agenda if she failed to overcome the sharply deteriorating security situation.

will continue

Sheinbaum said she would continue the policies of outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who came to power in 2018 promising to increase welfare and reduce poverty in order to end violence.

Investing in education could also slow recruitment by criminal gangs, but so far has had little effect.

Sheinbaum also pledged to strengthen the judiciary, the National Guard and the country’s BroadCast Unitedligence agencies so they can better combat drug cartels and other criminals.

Fear of Trump

Another major challenge that awaits the new president is Mexico’s complicated relationship with the U.S. If Donald Trump returns to the White House, relations with its northern neighbor will not get any better.

He warned of a stepped-up crackdown on illegal immigration, claiming that immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries were behind much of the crime in the United States.

The fact that Trump has no statistics is not that important. This message touches the hearts of many American voters.