MEXICO CITY (AP) \u2014 Claudia Sheinbaum was sworn in Tuesday as\u00a0Mexico\u2019s first female president, riding the enthusiasm over her predecessor\u2019s social programs but also facing challenges that include stubbornly high levels of violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a smiling Sheinbaum took the oath of office on the floor of Congress, legislators shouted \u201cPresidenta! Presidenta!\u201d using the feminine form of president in Spanish for the first time in over 200 years of Mexico\u2019s history as an independent country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 62-year-old scientist-turned-politician receives a country with a number of immediate problems, also including a sluggish economy, unfinished building programs, rising debt and\u00a0the hurricane-battered resort city of Acapulco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In her inauguration speech, Sheinbaum said that she came to power accompanied by all of the women who have struggled in anonymity to make their way in Mexico, including \u201cthose who dreamed of the possibility that one day no matter if we were born as women or men we would achieve our dreams and desires without our sex determining our destiny.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She made a long list of promises to limit prices for gasoline and food, expand cash hand-out programs for women and children, support business investment, housing and passenger rail construction. But any mention of the drug cartels that control much of the country was brief and near the end of the list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sheinbaum offered little change from former President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s \u2018Hugs not Bullets\u2019 strategy of addressing root causes and not confronting the cartels, apart from pledging more intelligence work and investigation. \u201cThere will be no return to the irresponsible drug war,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sheinbaum romped to victory in June with nearly 60% of the vote, propelled largely by the sustained popularity of her political mentor, L\u00f3pez Obrador. She has pledged to continue all his policies, even those that strengthened the power of the military and weakened the country\u2019s checks and balances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the inauguration, Sheinbaum appeared at a mass rally in Mexico City\u2019s colonial-era main plaza to participate in a ceremony involving an all-women committee representing Mexico\u2019s approximately 70 Indigenous groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sheinbaum was blessed and brushed with herbs and incense by Ernestina Ortiz, a \u201cspiritual guide,\u201d who told Sheinbaum \u201cYou are a voice for all of us who had no voice for a long time.\u201d An Indigenous elder then handed Sheinbaum a wooden Indigenous \u201cstaff of authority,\u201d like those carried by community leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the ceremony, Sheinbaum said she would push for a total ban on any public servant being re-elected to office \u2014 a tall promise, given that her party has now passed a law making all judges stand for election. That would suggest Mexico may have a new crop of inexperienced judges every few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Luc\u00eda Ru\u00edz, a 42-year-old mother of three, was one of thousands trying to reach the main square to see the rally. She said she hopes Sheinbaum will be able to combat high rates of violence against women in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShe is going to represent us,\u201d said Ru\u00edz. \u201cWe have always been governed by men, and they think we\u2019re incapable, but we\u2019re not. We are the head of our families.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
L\u00f3pez Obrador took office six years ago declaring \u201cFor the good of all, first the poor,\u201d and promising historical change from the neoliberal economic policies of his predecessors. Sheinbaum promised continuity from his popular social policies to controversial constitutional reforms to\u00a0the judiciary\u00a0and\u00a0National Guard\u00a0rammed through during his final days in office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite her pledge of continuity, Sheinbaum is a very different personality: a cautious scientist and ideological university leftist, as opposed to the outgoing president\u2019s chummy, everyman appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cL\u00f3pez Obrador was a tremendously charismatic president and many times that charisma allowed him to cover up some political errors that Claudia Sheinbaum will not have that possibility of doing,\u201d said Carlos P\u00e9rez Ricart, a political analyst at Mexico\u2019s Center for Economic Research and Teaching. \u201cSo, where L\u00f3pez Obrador was charismatic, Claudia Sheinbaum will have to be effective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She will wield formidable power because L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s Morena party controls both houses of Congress. But the country remains deeply polarized between the outgoing president\u2019s fanatic fans and almost one-third of the population who deeply resent him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf we want a strong government, the checks and balances also have to be strong,\u201d said opposition Sen. Mar\u00eda Guadalupe Murgu\u00eda, suggesting that an all-powerful army and unchecked ruling party could come back to haunt Mexico. \u201cRemember,\u201d she said, \u201cnobody wins everything, and nobody loses forever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sheinbaum is not inheriting an easy situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Drug cartels have strengthened their hold over much of Mexico, and her first trip as president will be to the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco,\u00a0which was flooded last week by Hurricane John, which killed at least 17 people along the coast around the resort. Acapulco was\u00a0devastated in October 2023 by Hurricane Otis, and had not recovered from that blow when John hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sheinbaum must also deal with raging violence in the\u00a0cartel-dominated northern city of Culiacan, where factional fighting within the Sinaloa cartel broke out after drug lords Ismael \u201cEl Mayo\u201d Zambada and Joaqu\u00edn Guzm\u00e1n L\u00f3pez were apprehended in the United States after they flew there in a small plane on July 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
L\u00f3pez Obrador has long sought to avoid confronting Mexico\u2019s drug cartels and has openly appealed to the gangs to keep the peace among themselves, but the limitations of that strategy have become glaringly apparent in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, where gun battles have raged on the city\u2019s streets. Local authorities and even the army \u2014 which L\u00f3pez Obrador has relied on for everything \u2014 have essentially admitted that the fighting will only end when the cartel bosses decide to end it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that\u2019s only the latest hotspot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Drug-related violence is surging from Tijuana in the north to Chiapas in the south,\u00a0displacing thousands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Sheinbaum inherits a huge budget deficit, unfinished construction projects and a burgeoning bill for her party\u2019s cash hand-out programs \u2014 all of which could send financial markets tumbling \u2014 perhaps her biggest looming concern is the possibility of a victory for Donald Trump in the\u00a0Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump has already vowed to slap 100% tariffs on vehicles made in Mexico. Though that would likely violate the current U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, there are other things Trump could do to make life difficult for Sheinbaum, including his pledge of massive deportations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Relations with Mexico\u2019s northern neighbor were already tense after L\u00f3pez Obrador said he was\u00a0putting relations with the U.S. embassy \u201con pause\u201d\u00a0after public criticism of the proposed judicial overhaul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At her inauguration, Sheinbaum boosted the free trade agreement with the United States and Canada, saying \u201cwe know that economic cooperation strengthens the three nations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are areas where Sheinbaum could try to take Mexico in a new direction. For example, she has a Ph.D. in energy engineering and has spoken of the need to address\u00a0climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But on Tuesday, she said she would cap oil production at 1.8 million barrels per day, which would be more than what the troubled state-owned company currently produces. \u201cWe are going to promote energy efficiency and the transition toward renewable sources of energy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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