El Magonista | Vol. 11, No. 28 | September 10, 2023

Mexico will elect its first woman as president next year after the governing party chose Claudia Sheinbaum to square off against the opposition’s candidate, Xóchitl Gálvez.

Mexico’s governing party chose Claudia Sheinbaum, a former mayor of Mexico City, as its candidate in next year’s presidential election on Wednesday, creating a watershed moment in the world’s largest Spanish-speaking country, with voters expected to choose for the first time between two leading candidates who are women.

“Today democracy won. Today the people of Mexico decided,” Ms. Sheinbaum said during the announcement, adding that her party, Morena, would win the 2024 election. “Tomorrow begins the electoral process,” she said. “And there is no minute to lose.”

Ms. Sheinbaum, 61, a physicist with a doctorate in environmental engineering and a protégé of Mexico’s current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, will face off against the opposition’s top contender, Xóchitl Gálvez, 60, an outspoken engineer with Indigenous roots who rose from poverty to become a tech entrepreneur.

“We can already say today: Mexico, by the end of next year, will be governed by a woman,” said Jesús Silva-Herzog Márquez, a political scientist at Mexico’s Monterrey Institute of Technology, adding that it was an “extraordinary change” for the country.

Ms. Sheinbaum has built her political career mostly in the shadow of Mr. López Obrador, and had emerged early on as the party’s favored pick to succeed the current president. That connection is thought to give her a crucial edge heading into next year’s election thanks to the high approval ratings enjoyed by Mr. López Obrador, who is limited by Mexico’s Constitution to one six-year term.

In recent months, Mr. López Obrador has insisted that he will hold no influence once he finishes his term. “I am going to retire completely,” he said in March. “I am not a chieftain, much less do I feel irreplaceable. I am not a strongman; I am not a messiah...  READ MORE

Things haven’t played out exactly as Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had hoped they might.

For months, his party, Morena, had carefully planned the selection of its presidential candidate. Several months ago, López Obrador gave the green light to start the primary process earlier than the law allowed, and most of the plausible candidates in his party took up the challenge. Six candidates registered, and the primary race soon narrowed down to the two most prominent figures in López Obrador’s inner circle: the former foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, and former Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum.

As the race kicked off, the party insisted it was running a fair contest: The candidate would be chosen through a series of public polls. Fairly quickly, however, it became apparent that Sheinbaum was being favored. Walls and fences across the country were painted with her campaign slogan. Her face peered from billboards and magazine covers.

Ebrard cried foul. “We have never seen so much lobbying, so many fake, paid polls. I’ve never seen such a smear campaign, even against my family, as the one we’re witnessing,” he said last month. Sheinbaum denied any bias in her favor.

On Wednesday, when Sheinbaum was anointed as Morena’s candidate, Ebrard’s exasperation boiled over. Posting on X (formerly Twitter), he compared the primaries to those run by the PRI, the hegemonic party that ruled Mexico for seven decades. Those primaries were invariably shams, with the winning candidate handpicked behind the scenes by the sitting president.

Ebrard has lost the primary, but he’s not out of the race altogether. As two women square off in next year’s election, the former foreign minister is weighing his options. Could he be a spoiler candidate?

Once the process ended, I asked Ebrard whether he had been the victim of an unfair system. “I view the process as highly questionable,” he told me. Ebrard also alleged mistreatment of his campaign official, Sen. Martha Lucía Mícher Camarena, who said police forcefully prevented her from observing the final tally of the party’s polls... READ MORE

The two candidates have vowed to fight government corruption and maintain the popular social programs created by AMLO: more pensions to seniors and scholarships for students.

A week before the political primary season in Mexico comes to a close, the two biggest political coalitions are closer to nominating two women candidates for president.

Claudia Sheinbaum, Ph.D., is leading in the race for the dominant leftist National Regeneration Movement or MORENA party/coalition nomination. The party controls congress and the presidency. It was created and is led by popular president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, or AMLO, as he is called.

Senator Xóchitl Gálvez leads the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, party race and just received support from coalition partner PRD, Party of the Democratic Revolution. Along with the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, the coalition was created to unite against the popular MORENA party.

Both candidates have ties to the United States.

Sheinbaum was most recently head of government of Mexico City and a cabinet member of AMLO’s administration when he led Mexico City. Before politics, she was a world-renowned environmental engineer with her doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. She also has a sister who lives in Los Angeles.

“When I asked the people, ‘Do you have relatives that live in the US?’ many, many, they raised their hands,” said Sheinbaum, who invited DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) students from the California-Mexico Studies Center, headquartered in Long Beach, as her guests during a political rally in Mexico City. “So, we are together.”

She has vowed to work with the U.S to help the DACA recipients gain acceptance and open travel back and forth to their home country... READ MORE

Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum is to be the ruling party’s presidential candidate.

MEXICO CITY — The former mayor of Mexico City will be the dominant ruling party’s presidential candidate, moving the country closer to electing its first female president next year.

The decision driven by polls of Morena party members means that Claudia Sheinbaum will run as the party’s candidate in the June election. Mexico’s constitution bars outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador from a second six-year term.

Morena national council president Alfonso Durazo said Sheinbaum beat former Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard by double figures in five party surveys.

Sheinbaum is a close ally of the popular López Obrador and as Morena’s candidate she will enjoy a distinct advantage in June.

“I’m excited,” Sheinbaum said, thanking each of her competitors by name with the exception of Ebrard who was not present. “I feel very proud, very honored” to have been part of this movement since its inception.

Last week, a broad opposition coalition selected female lawmaker Xóchitl Gálvez as its candidate.

Sheinbaum, 61, led Ebrard in recent polling and both had stepped down from their positions to campaign full time.

Durazo said “the result of this exercise is definitive,” adding that even though there were difficulties they didn’t affect the final result. He called on party members to close ranks behind Sheinbaum’s candidacy.

The other party candidates present at the announcement commended Sheinbaum. Ebrard was the only candidate who did not attend.

Hours before the announcement Wednesday, Ebrard complained of irregularities in the process, said it should be done over and accused his party of increasingly resembling the Institutional Revolutionary Party that ruled Mexico for 71 years, famously allowing each president to select his successor. He said he would decide Monday how to proceed.

Other party leaders seemed to respond indirectly to Ebrard’s criticisms, saying the internal party process was transparent and democratic... READ MORE

MEXICO CITY — Mexico's two main political groups have chosen women presidential candidates, setting up an unprecedented election next year.

The main opposition, the Broad Front for Mexico, chose Xóchitl Gálvez, an outspoken senator, to represent their coalition.

And the governing Morena party picked the former mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, to be its nominee.

That means — barring any upsets by a third-party candidate — Mexico will elect a woman president, shattering the glass ceiling in a notoriously patriarchal country.

Both women are unlikely protagonists in Mexico's presidential race. Sheinbaum, 61, is an environmental engineer who became Mexico City's first Jewish mayorand is a close ally of leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Gálvez, 60, is a computer engineer who founded her own tech business. She broke into politics as the head of the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples. She grew up in an impoverished community in the central state of Hidalgo, where she helped her family sell street food.

Her rise in politics has been meteoric and she is good at grabbing headlines. Last year she lumbered onto the floor of Mexico's Senate wearing an inflatable green dinosaur suit, to protest against a ruling party bill.

Women have made huge strides in Mexico's political arena in recent years, in a country where they were not allowed to vote until 1953. They have made up nearly half of the legislature since 2021. And a woman is currently chief justice of the Mexican Supreme Court.

In contrast, the U.S. currently ranks 71 in the world in terms of gender parity in politics. Mexico ranks at number 5.

Polls currently show Sheinbaum leading the race for president, with Mexico's Reforma newspaper showing her with 44% support, and Gálvez with 27%.

The presidential election is scheduled for June next year... READ MORE

Mexico seems set to elect its first female president in next year’s election after the country’s leading parties both unveiled women candidates. 

Ruling party Morena said Wednesday that Claudia Sheinbaum will be its nominee for the 2024 general election. She is set to take on Senator Xóchitl Gálvez, who was nominated by the opposition coalition on Sunday.

They will be vying to replace current leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who is required to step down next year as Mexican law prohibits presidents from seeking a second six-year term.

Sheinbaum is a former mayor of Mexico City who has long been considered a favorite to get the nomination. She was officially named Morena’s pick after winning an internal survey on the party’s candidate. 

Born in Mexico City in 1962, Sheinbaum has a degree in physics and a PhD in energy engineering. 

She served as Mexico City’s secretary of the environment in the year 2000, when Obrador was the city’s mayor. Since then, she has maintained a close relationship with the outgoing leader, supporting him in his three political campaigns for presidency. 

She was elected mayor of Mexico City in 2018. 

After four-and-a-half years, she left that post to pursue her ambition of becoming presidential candidate for her party, of which she is a founder.

Her main rival Gálvez was officially named on Sunday as the candidate of the alliance of opposition parties “Frente Amplio Por Mexico,” Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) announced on its X account, formerly known as Twitter.... READ MORE

Claudia Sheinbaum closed her campaign to be the presidential candidate of Mexico’s ruling party, Morena, promising continuity. “No steps back, nor steps to the right, only continuing the transformation,” she shouted on stage in the city of Verácruz on August 27th. Ms Sheinbaum is positioning herself as the person who will pick up the torch from President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose six-year term is coming to an end, if she wins the general election next June. 

First she must secure her spot as Morena’s candidate; the result of the party’s selection process will be announced on September 6th. The 61-year-old former mayor of Mexico City (a position equivalent to a state governor) has a strong lead in the polls, thanks in part to obvious, if implicit, support from Mr López Obrador. Ms Sheinbaum is almost certain to beat her closest rival, Marcelo Ebrard, a former foreign minister. And Morena’s dominance of Mexico’s politics means that, failing a major upset, she will be the country’s next president. That would make her its first female, and first Jewish, head of state. 

Ms Sheinbaum grew up in a middle-class family in the capital, the daughter of two scientists who were active in the student protests of 1968(which had the same pro-democracy tenor as those sweeping much of the rest of the world). She studied physics before completing a doctorate in environmental engineering at one of Mexico’s top universities. She joined Morena when Mr López Obrador founded it in 2014, and served as his minister for the environment when he was mayor of the capital.

She shares much of the president’s ideology: a mixture of left-wing ideas, such as increasing social handouts, and nationalist ones, such as favouring state-owned companies over the private sector. 

Between July 2018 and June 2023 Ms Sheibaum ran Mexico City herself. Her record there suggests she would be a less ideological and more competent president than her mentor... READ MORE

MEXICO CITY  —  Mexico’s ruling party on Wednesday named former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum as its candidate in next year’s presidential race, a widely expected move that puts the country on track to elect its first female president.

The major opposition coalition had already chosen another woman, Xóchitl Gálvez, a sitting senator in the Mexican Congress, as its standard-bearer.

The two women — Sheinbaum, 61, a physicist and former university professor, and Gálvez, 60, a successful tech entrepreneur — are set to face off in an election scheduled for June 2.

The nomination Wednesday was largely overshadowed by a blowup inside the ruling party, known as Morena. Sheinbaum’s chief competitor, Marcelo Ebrard, cited unspecified “faults” in the primary process even before final results were announced. 

Ebrard, a former foreign minister, called publicly for a rerun of the internal polling that ultimately gave Sheinbaum her victory.

He alleged that his campaign representative was beaten by police when she attempted to enter the site in downtown Mexico City where ballots were being counted. “I never thought I would live [to see] something like this in my own party,” Ebrard wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. 

Gálvez, the opposition candidate, mocked the turmoil, inviting Ebrard to join her movement.

Officials of the ruling party disputed Ebrard’s charges and said there would be no new polling. 

Sheinbaum won an average of 39.4% of the votes in five internal polls, Morena said. Ebrard was second, with 25.8%. The former foreign minister was the only one of the six Morena candidates who did not show up for the unveiling of the results... READ MORE

El ex Canciller Marcelo Ebrard descalificó el proceso anticipadamente y no validó los resultados que le dieron el triunfo a la ex Jefa de Gobierno, pues alegó alteración y robo de paquetes e intervención de funcionarios públicos en favor de Sheinbaum.

Morena realizó una encuesta central y cuatro más con empresas privadas que denominó espejo.

Tras un conteo de 33 horas, Sheinbaum resultó ganadora en las cinco encuestas. En el sondeo morenista obtuvo 39.4 por ciento de las preferencias.

Mientras que Ebrard se quedó en segundo lugar con un 25.6 por ciento; Gerardo Fernández Noroña logró un 12.2 por ciento; Adán Augusto López, 10 por ciento; Ricardo Monreal, 6.5 por ciento y el verde Manuel Velasco, 6.3 por ciento.

Ante el rompimiento del ex Canciller, Sheinbaum hizo un llamado a la unidad.

"Aquí necesitamos de todos y necesitamos de todas. Quiero también decir que la unidad es fundamental y que las puertas siempre están abiertas, que nunca se van a cerrar", planteó Sheinbaum, quien no perdió la sonrisa durante toda la ceremonia realizada anoche.

El conteo había comenzado sobre el mediodía; sorpresivamente Marcelo Ebrard llegó a un salón de un hotel contiguo a la sede y en improvisada conferencia de prensa demandó la reposición del proceso ante "incidencias" que, sostuvo, alteraban el resultado.

"Hemos encontrado incidencias en una proporción muy superior a la que habíamos previsto, por eso afirmamos que esto debe reponerse. Quiero que les quede claro que no se ha contado un solo voto, no se ha contado una sola encuesta", dijo Ebrard, pese a que ese proceso de conteo ya avanzaba. No exhibió pruebas de sus denuncias de irregularidades.

Apenas terminaba su anuncio, cuando llegó la senadora Malú Mícher, de su equipo de campaña, para acusar que la dirigencia morenista había enviado policías para impedirle el ingreso al conteo de resultados, aunque no contaba con una acreditación actualizada para hacerlo.

Molesto, Ebrard reclamó por ese incidente y anunció que no estaría presente en la ceremonia nocturna para la que estaban citados los 6 contendientes y donde se darían a conocer los resultados. "No vaya a ser que me detenga la policía", dijo.

Minutos después retiró a sus operadores que estaban en el conteo.

Luego del desplante de Ebrard, el dirigente de Morena, Mario Delgado, y el presidente del Consejo Nacional de Morena, Alfonso Durazo, salieron en defensa del proceso.

Casi al mismo tiempo, los 22 Gobernadores y Gobernadoras de Morena difundieron un desplegado en redes sociales dando aval al proceso de consulta... LEER MAS