Claudia Sheinbaum claims sweeping mandate to become Mexico’s first female president

Claudia Sheinbaum claims sweeping mandate to become Mexico’s first female president


Reuters reports:

Claudia Sheinbaum, a Nobel Prize-winning climate scientist, will become Mexico’s first female president after winning a landslide election victory and promising to continue the work of her mentor and outgoing leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Sheinbaum, 61, secured between 58.3% and 60.7% of votes, according to the INE electoral institute’s rapid sample count released late Sunday night, the most support won by a candidate in a Mexican presidential election since the end of one-party rule in 2000.

Accepting her victory, Sheinbaum thanked Lopez Obrador, calling him “an exceptional, unique man who has transformed Mexico for the better.”

Lopez Obrador doubled the minimum wage, reduced poverty and oversaw a strengthening peso and low levels of unemployment – successes that made him incredibly popular and helped Sheinbaum to victory. But analysts believe Sheinbaum will find it difficult to follow in his footsteps.

“We made history!” Sheinbaum told a crowd early Monday morning in the Zocalo square in the heart of Mexico City.

Her victory is a major step for Mexico, a country known for its macho culture and home to the world’s second biggest Roman Catholic population, which for years pushed more traditional values and roles for women. [Continue reading…]

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