Meet the women leading presidential campaigns

When Claudia Sheinbaum, the front-runner in Mexico’s presidential election, arrived for a rally in a crowded park in the colonial city of Orizaba, the crowd began chanting “President!”

Attendees believed she was on the verge of becoming Mexico’s first female president.

Polls suggest they may well be right.

Her closest rival, Xóchitl Gálvez, also a woman and the only man in the presidential race, came in third, with Mexico almost certain to break centuries of male dominance of the country’s top office ‘s rule.

Ms. Scheinbaum, who belongs to the ruling Morena party, said in fluent English that the fact that both leading candidates were women showed that Mexican society was finally evolving.

“It’s a symbol of Mexico. I think it’s a symbol of the world,” she told the BBC.

“Mexico is called Machismo country for many years. But Mexicans are now governed by many women, and that is a change,” said the former mayor of Mexico City, referring to gender equality in cabinets and the high number of women serving as state governors.

“I see young girls getting excited about a woman becoming president. It changes the culture for women and men.

Mexico is a country where an average of about 11 women are murdered every day, and Ms. Sheinbaum is quick to acknowledge that more needs to be done to reduce violence against women.

easy to say, hard to do.

Veracruz is one of the five worst states in the country for femicide.

Just days before the candidate visits the eastern state, the body of 23-year-old Isamar Galindo was found with her hands tied, tortured, wrapped in a blanket and thrown into a canal.

“Profound cultural change doesn’t happen overnight,” Ms. Scheinbaum said of the deep-rooted problems of machismo and gender-based violence in Mexican society.

Throughout the campaign, her message remained the same. If elected, she said, she would continue the social and political process started by her mentor, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Their supporters call it “Mexico’s Fourth Transformation” and compare it to other key moments in Mexican history, including independence and the Mexican Revolution.

Mr López Obrador, known by his initials “Amlo”, has introduced a series of social development measures to alleviate poverty, including student bursaries and a universal state pension.

The plans are so popular that opposition candidates have been at pains to promise they will not repeal them.

In rallies and speeches, Ms. Scheinbaum has been careful to praise Amlo and his policies.

In return, his support could bring her big polling dividends — and perhaps the presidency itself.

Opponents, especially her main rival Xóchitl Gálvez, say President López Obrador is a populist and paint Ms. Sheinbaum as his puppet. , unable to escape his oversized personality. The former environmental scientist disputes this characterization:

“I have confidence in myself. I don’t care what they say.

“Of course López Obrador and I come from the same movement. We fought together for more than 20 years to have the government we have now and win opportunities and rights for Mexicans.

“I will live in a different time in history, but I will govern with the same principles, which is a good thing for the Mexican people.”

The BBC asked to interview Ms Galvez but she declined.

Ms Galvez, who is running for the conservative opposition coalition, accused the government of nepotism and widespread abuse of power during the campaign.

She also criticized social spending during President López Obrador’s six years in office as poorly managed and unevenly distributed.

“Mexicans’ monthly budgets are stretched thin in the face of the government’s failed social policies. Nine million people live in extreme poverty,” she said during the last televised debate. She pledged to lower the pension age from 65 to 60 years old.

Far from the hustle and bustle of campaigning, high in the Veracruz Mountains, the conditions here are ideal for growing some of the best coffee in the world.

Coffee beans are at the heart of close-knit rural communities, such as Ixhuatlán del Café, home to a women’s coffee cooperative called FemCafe.

Women are not allowed to vote or hold decision-making positions in most Mexican agricultural cooperatives. But at FemCafe, from coffee bean to cup, the entire enterprise is in women’s hands.

“This is about recognizing the structural inequalities where women have much less access to land than men,” said Gisela Illescas, founder of the cooperative.

“While women have always been involved in coffee production, we have been overlooked and denied the power to influence the overall direction or day-to-day operations of production.”

In addition to producing their own brand, FemCafe members also run a small coffee shop in town. Gisela Ileskas offers some advice for the next president:

“It’s not just about being a woman, it’s about gender awareness, which is a very different thing. The Department of Agriculture, for example, has never been led by a woman. And a female perspective in this role would have a huge impact on society as a whole. Impact.

Another main chant from the crowd at the Claudia Sheinbaum rally in Orizaba was “la primera!” which means “the first”.

Indeed, other countries in Latin America have had female presidents in the past — including Brazil, Chile and Argentina — but having a woman at the helm in Mexico is significant and long overdue.

The more complex task, however, lies in dismantling the sexism, inequality and gender-based violence entrenched in patriarchal societies.