Claudia Sheinbaum, the Mayor of Mexico City, is set to become the first woman – and Jewish – President of Mexico. She won the nomination of Mexico’s governing party, the Partido Nacional Revolucionario (“National Revolutionary Party”), the PRI, for the post, which in that country means, in effect, that she will win the election.
Mexico’s current president passed the baton – literally – to Claudia Sheinbaum in a ceremony. “I share with you the moment of my reading and oath of our principles upon receiving the baton from the hands of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, president of Mexico to, from now on, coordinate the defense movement of the Fourth Transformation,” she said. “It is an honor to be with Obrador.”
Her main opponent in the presidential election to be held on June 2, 2024, is another woman, Xóchitl Gálvez.
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Founded in 1929 as the Partido Nacional Revolucionario (“National Revolutionary Party”), the PRI has dominated Mexican politics for over 70 years Last week Claudia Sheinbaum defeated five other candidates in an internal party vote to become the nominee.
“Today democracy won. Today the people of Mexico decided,” Claudia Sheinbaum said after her victory.
Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo served as Head of Government of Mexico City, a position equivalent to that of a state governor, from 2018 to 2023. Elected as the candidate of the leftist Juntos Haremos Historia coalition, she was both the first woman and first Jewish person to be elected to the position.
Claudia Sheinbaum was born in Mexico City on June 24, 1962. She studied physics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and earned a doctorate in environmental engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid. She worked as a researcher at UNAM and the National Institute of Ecology.
In 2000, Sheinbaum was appointed Secretary of the Environment of the Federal District by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who was then the Head of Government of Mexico City. She held this position until 2006. In 2015, she was elected Delegational Chief of the Tlalpan borough of Mexico City.
Claudia Sheinbaum is a controversial figure. She has been praised for her commitment to social justice and environmental protection, but she has also been criticized for her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Mexico City Metro Line 12 collapse.