Who is Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum? A scientist, leftist and former Mexico City mayor

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Claudia Sheinbaum, who will be Mexico’s first female leader in the country’s more than 200 years of independence, won the presidency by promising continuity.

The 61-year-old former mayor of Mexico City and a longtime leftist ran a disciplined campaign capitalizing on her predecessor’s popularity before emerging victorious in Sunday’s vote, according to an official quick count. But with her victory now in hand, Mexicans will try to see how Sheinbaum, a very different personality from mentor and current president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, will assert himself.

Although she was close politically to López Obrador and shared many of his ideas about the government’s role in combating inequality, she is seen as less combative and more data-driven.

Sheinbaum’s background is in science. She has a Ph.D. in energy engineering. Her brother is a physicist. In a 2023 interview with the Associated Press, Sheinbaum said, “I believe in science.”

Observers say the rationale manifested itself in Sheinbaum’s actions as mayor during the COVID-19 pandemic, when his city of about 9 million people took a different approach than the one López Obrador advocated nationally.

While the federal government downplayed the importance of coronavirus testing, Mexico City expanded its testing regime. Sheinbaum set limits on business hours and capacity as the virus was spreading rapidly, although López Obrador wanted to avoid any measures that could harm the economy. And she publicly wore protective masks and called for social distancing while the president was still charging into the crowd.

Mexico’s persistently high levels of violence will be one of her most immediate challenges after she takes office on October 1. During the campaign, she said little more than that she would expand the quasi-military National Guard created by López Obrador and continue her strategy of targeting the social ills that make so many young Mexicans easy targets for cartel recruitment.

“Let’s be clear: This does not mean iron fists, wars or authoritarianism,” Sheinbaum said of his approach to dealing with criminal gangs during his latest campaign event. “We will promote a strategy to address the causes and continue moving towards zero impunity.”

Sheinbaum praised López Obrador profusely and said little that the president himself had not said. She blamed neoliberal economic policies for condemning millions to poverty, promised a strong welfare state and praised Mexico’s big state oil company, Pemex, while promising to emphasize clean energy.

“For me, being left-wing is about that, about guaranteeing minimum rights to all residents,” Sheinbaum told the AP last year.

In contrast to López Obrador, who seemed to relish his highly public battles with other branches of government as well as the media, many observers expect Sheinbaum to be less combative or at least more selective in choosing his fights.

“It looks like she will go in a different direction,” said Ivonne Acuña Murillo, a political scientist at the Universidad Iberoamericana. “I don’t know how much.”

Sheinbaum will also be the first person of Jewish origin to lead the predominantly Catholic country.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of the global elections at: