Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday was sworn in as Mexican president, riding the enthusiasm over her predecessor’s social programs, but also facing challenges that include stubbornly high levels of violence.
After a smiling Sheinbaum took the oath of office on the floor of Congress, legislators shouted: “Presidenta. Presidenta,” using the feminine form of president in Spanish for the first time in more than 200 years of Mexico’s history as an independent country.
The 62-year-old scientist-turned-politician receives a country with a number of immediate problems, including a sluggish economy, unfinished building programs, rising debt and the hurricane-battered resort city of Acapulco.
Photo: AFP
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 “those 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.”
She made a long list of promises to limit prices for gasoline and food, expand cash handout programs for women and children and support business investment, housing and passenger rail construction.
However, any mention of the drug cartels that control much of the country was brief and near the end of the list.
Photo: AFP
Sheinbaum offered little change from former Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s “hugs not bullets” strategy of addressing root causes and not confronting the cartels, apart from pledging more intelligence work and investigation.
“There will be no return to the irresponsible drug war,” she said.
She has pledged to continue all of Lopez Obrador’s policies, even those that bolstered the power of the military, and weakened the country’s checks and balances.
After the inauguration, Sheinbaum attended a rally in Mexico City’s colonial-era main plaza to participate in a ceremony involving an all-women committee representing Mexico’s approximately 70 indigenous groups.
Sheinbaum was blessed and brushed with herbs and incense by Ernestina Ortiz, a “spiritual guide,” who told Sheinbaum: “You are a voice for all of us who had no voice for a long time.”
An indigenous elder then handed Sheinbaum a wooden “staff of authority,” like those carried by community leaders.
After the ceremony, Sheinbaum said she would push for a total ban on any public servant being re-elected to office.
Lucia Ruiz, a 42-year-old mother of three, was one of thousands trying to reach the main square to see the rally.
She said she hoped Sheinbaum would combat high rates of violence against women in the country.
“She is going to represent us,” Ruiz said. “We have always been governed by men, and they think we’re incapable, but we’re not. We are the head of our families.”
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
RSS