As the first female president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum will legally take office on Tuesday and will launch a new government logo that honors the dreams of young girls.
A day earlier, Sheinbaum announced on social media that “a young Mexican woman will be the emblem of Mexico’s government,” revealing the logo that features a young woman in profile raising a Mexican flag while wearing her hair tied back into a ponytail, much to the new president’s hallmark style.
Sheinbaum has embraced her historic feat in one of Latin America’s more socially conservative countries, which until now has been ruled by a series of 65 men since winning its independence from Spain two centuries ago.
The former mayor of the sprawling Mexican capital, Sheinbaum has been bolstered by the popularity of outgoing leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, her political benefactor going back nearly a quarter century.
But as the former climate scientist steps out of her predecessor’s shadow to lead the world’s largest Spanish-speaking nation, Sheinbaum will also face doubts and opposition from critics alarmed by the outgoing president’s 11th-hour reform drive.
Enacted last month, the reforms included a judicial overhaul that will over the next three years replace all of the country’s judges with new jurists elected by popular vote.
“Our hard-won democracy will be transformed, for all practical purposes, into a one-party autocracy,” wrote former President Ernesto Zedillo in a Sunday guest essay for Britain’s Economist Magazine.
Critics of Lopez Obrador and Sheinbaum fear their ruling Morena party has too much power, and that democratic checks on executive power will be undermined.
The judicial overhaul’s implementation will fall to Sheinbaum, who will also face a widening government budget deficit that could crimp popular welfare spending and costly crime-fighting initiatives at a time when the economy is only expected to grow modestly.
The 62-year-old Sheinbaum promised continuity on the campaign trail, and now faces the balancing act of advancing Lopez Obrador’s state-centric economic polices, especially over natural resources such as oil and minerals, while also making progress on issues seen as his weak points like the environment and security.
She also makes history as the first president of Jewish heritage in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country.
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Source: The Print
