- Mexico’s first female president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador sees his presidency as a watershed in the nation’s history.
- Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum has emerged as the early front-runner to be his party’s nominee in 2024.
- Presidents are not eligible for reelection in Mexico.
The most important legacy of Mexico’s first female president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a left-leaning resource nationalist who sees his presidency as a watershed in the nation’s history.
Despite rumors that she would be more moderate than Lopez Obrador, Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, a 60-year-old physicist, environmentalist, and longtime ally of his, has emerged as the early front-runner to be his party’s nominee in 2024.
According to polls, Lopez Obrador’s National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) is now in a commanding lead in the campaign for president, giving the election the appearance of being a contest between members of the ruling party. Presidents are not eligible for reelection in Mexico.
With the return of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to Brazil on Sunday, Lopez Obrador, whose election in 2018 ushered in a wave of left-wing victories across Latin America, has often declared publicly that he has no favorite.
However, five top advisers to the president told media that they had little doubt that he would prefer Sheinbaum to succeed him because she was most likely to solidify his goal of making the state the primary force behind social change in history.
Former MORENA lawmaker Lorena Villavicencio concurred.
“Claudia guarantees the key programs of the ‘Fourth Transformation’ will continue,” said Villavicencio, using the epithet Lopez Obrador claims for his government as an epochal shift comparable to Mexico’s independence from Spain.
Socially conservative, the brash president has consolidated his hold on power by increased welfare spending, governmental control of natural resources, and an expansion of the military forces while demonizing opponents as dishonest and self-interested.
He has run into opposition from certain feminists who think he is out of date. However, in a nation where’machista’ culture has long been criticized for consigning women to subservient jobs and higher levels of violence against them than in regional peers, his government and Congress have also seen record female involvement.
Sheinbaum wants to go farther, portraying her candidacy as historic for women in Mexico and beyond, citing her record of making the city safer for women and offering free daycare for kids.
“A woman in charge of the country would open new horizons and unleash the potential of other women. It would break the monopoly of men in public life,” said Villavicencio.
The aides, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private concerns, claimed Lopez Obrador didn’t make it clear that Sheinbaum was his choice. Based on their interactions with him, what he had said, and their evaluation of political developments, they perceived her as his favorite.
If her bid fails, things might still change, they pointed out.
Sheinbaum positions herself as the candidate for continuity, serving as both a steward of his legacy and a champion of his philosophy. She also makes a suggestion that, in one area regarded essential for Mexico’s development: green technology, she may be better at working with investors.
In response to manufacturers’ worries that they would find it difficult to meet emission-reduction targets under Lopez Obrador’s drive to priorities output by Mexico’s fossil fuel-dependent state energy firms, she pledges to increase the output of renewable energy in a way that encourages industrial development.
“Our country has enormous potential in renewable energy,” Sheinbaum told media. “It’s perfectly feasible Mexico is really entering an age of renewable energy.”
Nevertheless, she also defends Lopez Obrador’s contentious goal of ensuring power generation is split 54-46% in favor of the state in order to protect “energy sovereignty.”
Six senior CEOs told media that Sheinbaum’s most notable challenger, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, is anticipated to be more business-friendly. However, they don’t hesitate to predict that neither would be less discouraging to investors than Lopez Obrador.
Four of the advisers claimed that, partly on ideological grounds, the president favoured Interior Minister Adan Augusto Lopez over Ebrard.
Lopez Obrador publicly disputes this, but his aides insist that Lopez Obrador’s desires will be a key factor in picking the candidate. They claim that the president wants to see how the front-runners interact with people, therefore the issue is still up for debate. He claims that a MORENA-organized poll will be used to select the winner.
Voters appear to support Sheinbaum over Ebrard marginally, according to recent polls.
Although none of the party’s front-runners commands Lopez Obrador’s political clout, leaders, officials, diplomats, and MORENA legislators claim that all of them are more inclined to be accommodative.
[embedpost slug=”black-and-poor-women-decides-brazils-president/”]
