Claudia Sheinbaum’s list of accolades is long: she has a PhD in energy engineering, served on a United Nations panel of climate scientists, won the Nobel Peace Prize and governed the capital, one of the largest cities in the Western Hemisphere ).
On Sunday, she added another achievement to her resume: becoming Mexico’s first elected female president.
Scheinbaum, 61, secured at least 58 percent of the vote on Sunday in a landmark election that pitted two women against the country’s top job in a country long characterized by a culture of machismo and violence against women. It is a groundbreaking competition for the country.
“For the first time in the 200 years since the founding of the Republic, I will be the first female president of Mexico,” she said. “As I have said on other occasions, I did not arrive alone. We all came, bringing with us the heroines of our homeland, but also our ancestors, our mothers, our daughters and our granddaughters .
Now that the presidency has been locked up, Ms. Sheinbaum’s next hurdle will be emerging from the shadow of her predecessor and long-time mentor, outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. .
She said in an interview that she and López Obrador were “different people.” He is an oilman who has invested in projects with environmental concerns; she is a climate scientist. However, Scheinbaum appealed to voters primarily by promising to solidify his legacy, supporting initiatives such as a big bet on state oil companies and proposing constitutional reforms that critics called anti-democratic.
Their alliance also has many Mexicans asking: Can Ms. Sheinbaum become her own leader? Or is she just his pawn?
“Some people think I have no personality because a lot of columnists say that,” Ms. Scheinbaum complained to reporters earlier this year. “President Andres Manuel López Obrador told me what to do.”
She insists she will govern independently of Mr López Obrador and has some different priorities. But straying too far from his agenda could be very dangerous.
Here are five things you need to know about Mexico’s newly elected president to help understand whether she will stray from the policies of Mr. López Obrador or work to solidify his legacy.
1. Sheinbaum will face a series of challenges.
Sheinbaum, a former ballet dancer, describes herself as “persistent” and “disciplined.” But analysts say discipline may not be enough.
As president, she has endured a series of troubles. The state-run oil company is deeply in debt, immigration across the country is at an all-time high and cartel violence continues to plague the country.
She said she would continue Mr López Obrador’s policy of addressing the root causes of violence rather than waging war on criminal groups, but would also work to reduce impunity and strengthen the National Guard.
With the U.S. presidential election just months away, she told the New York Times she was ready to work with the winning candidate. Publicly, she agrees with Mr. López Obrador’s emphasis on solving the immigration problem by addressing its root causes.
She said at a recent debate that she would seek to reform the country’s immigration agency, which has often been accused of corruption, hinting at potential changes.
2. She is considered conservative, even aloof.
The Times interviewed 20 people who have worked with or known Ms. Sheinbaum, visited her campaign events, reviewed her writings and her presence in the media, and interviewed her again in 2020 and this year.
What’s clear is that Ms. Sheehanbaum (pronounced SHANE-balm) has long seemed more interested in getting the job done quietly than selling herself or her accomplishments.
The granddaughter of Jewish immigrants who fled Europe, she rarely discussed being Jewish or virtually anything about her personal life, colleagues said. When the interviewer asked about the Nobel Prize she shared with a group of climate researchers, she pointed out how many others were involved in the work.
She was known as a tough boss with a bad temper who could inspire both fear and adoration in her employees. In public, however, her mood is very restrained, almost aloof.
Some say her teaching style could pose a challenge to the political landscape defined by López Obrador, who has relied on the force of his personality to build his party into a formidable one.
“She needs him,” said Mexican political analyst Carlos Heredia. “She has no charisma, no name recognition, no political stamina of her own, so she needs to borrow that from López Obrador.”
For some Mexicans, however, a woman without excitement may be the ideal antidote to a funny man who has plunged the country into partisan chaos.
3. She has long worked to keep Mr. López Obrador happy.
The candidate’s political career began when Mr López Obrador was elected mayor of Mexico City in 2000 and invited her to a meeting in a restaurant. “What I want is less pollution,” she remembers Mr. López Obrador telling her. “Do you know how to do that?”
Ms. Scheinbaum, who by then had written more than a dozen reports on energy use and carbon emissions, said yes. She became his environment minister. In meetings, she seemed willing to do anything to keep her boss happy, according to several people who worked with her.
“The phrase she used over and over again was ‘the mayor said,'” said Mr. Heredia, who worked with her in city government under Mr. López Obrador. Mr. Heredia expressed what this means: “We are not a cabinet that provides ideas,” he said. “We are a group of people who are here to enforce his decisions.”
In the years that followed, Ms. Scheinbaum straddled the worlds of academia and politics, but she always maintained a close relationship with López Obrador. In 2014, when he founded the Morena Party, he invited her to run for mayor of the Tralpan district of Mexico City on its behalf. With his support, she won.
4. She is known as a demanding boss.
In 2018, Mr. López Obrador was elected president in a landslide and Ms. Scheinbaum became mayor of Mexico City. She quickly earned a reputation as a “strict boss.”
“People don’t go to her meetings and tell her, ‘I’m working on it,’” said Soledad Aragón, a former member of Ms. Scheinbaum’s cabinet. Ms. Aragon said that when she walked into a room, everyone sat up straight.
Ms Aragon said that as mayor she remembered the specific figures being brought up at a meeting a few weeks after the incident, describing her as “brilliant” and “very demanding”, especially of herself, adding: “Results have been achieved.”
Five officials who worked with Ms. Scheinbaum, who were not authorized to speak publicly, said she sometimes got angry easily and would yell at subordinates in front of large groups. Scheinbaum, through a spokesman, declined to comment on the allegation.
Her defenders say some people simply react badly to women in charge.
“I know that in her administration there were times when people were offended or upset because she yelled at them,” said Marta Lamarr, a long-time women’s rights activist close to Sheinbaum and her team. Marta Lamas said. “But if a man yells, that’s not going to be a problem because culturally it’s different.”
“People say in a critical way: ‘She’s strong,’” Ms. Aragon said. “What do you want, a weak man in charge of this city?”
5. She is a true believer in Mr. López Obrador’s vision.
For years, Ms. Scheinbaum has tried to explain how she could keep pace with Mr. López Obrador while still being herself. The answer, she says, is simple: She sincerely believed in him.
In 2022, a radio host asked one of her female listeners a pointed question: “Why don’t you choose to be a woman who governs with your own ideas? Why don’t you leave Ofra’s circus?” She said with Lopez. “Why the same wording, the same phrasing?” asked Mr. Obrador’s nickname.
Ms. Sheenbaum didn’t hesitate.
“If you think like someone else, it’s not that you’re copying them; it’s that you’re imitating them. You’re just agreeing with the ideas,” she said. “You can’t deny what you believe.”
Emiliano Rodriguez Mejia Contributed reporting.
