Inauguration of Mexico's First Woman President
Historic Day in the Life of the Mexican People
On October 1, Claudia Sheinbaum became the first female president of Mexico. For the first time since the country's independence in 1821 and for the first time since the Spanish invasion of Mexico and their brutal elimination of the Indigenous way of life and rule 513 years ago, a woman is the head of government. She governs a country of more than 130 million people.
In the Mexican presidential election on June 2, Claudia Sheinbaum, candidate for the Sigamos Haciendo Historia coalition (Let's Keep Making History) comprised of the Morena Party, the Workers' Party and Green Party, won with 59.76 per cent of the vote. This is almost 36 million votes. She ran her campaign under the theme "Let's build the second bridge of the fourth transformation," and the continuation of the new regime that is based on Mexican humanism.
Campaign slogans included: For the good of all, the poor first, With the people everything, without the people nothing, and No to corruption. She pledged to continue the social policies and economic agenda initiated by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who had been in power since 2018.
A highly regarded physicist, Sheinbaum served as head of government in Mexico's Federal District, Mexico City, from December 2018 to June 2023.
On the morning of October 1, after taking the oath to serve the people and the nation before the Mexican Congress, she went to the National Palace in the Zócalo (the central square with the Cathedral, the National Palace and government buildings). There, tens of thousands of Mexicans were waiting to celebrate her inauguration as president.
The Zócalo was overflowing with people, and screens had been set up in the surrounding streets to allow the crowd to see and hear her. During a ceremony presided over by representatives of Indigenous Peoples, she received the insignia of power. Afterwards, accompanied by a woman from each of Mexico's 63 Indigenous nations, she addressed the Mexican people.
The day was declared a statutory holiday and celebrations also took place across the country.
In her almost two-hour long speech, Sheinbaum presented her program entitled 100 Steps to Transformation, 2024-2030. A highlight of significance to the people is the continuation of the program put in place by her predecessor which includes, among other things, a universal pension for all seniors, a universal pension for all people with disabilities, university and college scholarships, assistance programs for small farmers, public health care and free medication. In addition she announced that as of October 3, all women aged 63 and 64 would be registered to receive a bi-monthly economic assistance income starting in January 2025. She went on to announce scholarships for all secondary and primary school students, starting with secondary school students in November and December, as well as the hiring of 20,000 doctors and nurses who will be responsible for visiting the elderly, house by house, to provide them with adequate health care.
A Ministry of Women has been created whose main objective is to guarantee women's rights including equal pay, the right to assistance, particularly for women from all Indigenous communities, so that they receive the care and education to which they are entitled. Together with the Ministry of Security, the Ministry of Women will fight against discrimination and femicide.
In terms of infrastructure, her government will continue the development plan to modernize rail transport by adding 3,000 kilometres of passenger transport services, the extension of the railway being built though Maya lands, known as Tren Maya, to the Guatemalan border and the continuation of the construction of artisanal roads built by communities living in the sierra (the mountains). In terms of education, access to university will be facilitated and extended throughout the republic and university entrance exams for the metropolitan region of the capital will be abolished.
After highlighting the adoption of the constitutional reform guaranteeing the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Sheinbaum committed to implementing it by starting with the granting of economic funds to each of the communities to enable their autonomous development at the economic and cultural levels.
In terms of Mexico's energy self-sufficiency policy, she committed to the production of 1.8 million barrels of oil per day in order to guarantee national needs while developing renewable energy in the spirit of environmental protection.
In terms of foreign policy, she committed to continuing the policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, to defending the sovereignty of peoples, to opposing any sanctions or economic blockades by one country against another and to working for peace. Her government will work in collaboration with other countries, but without ever submitting to anyone, Sheinbaum said.
A reform of the electoral system that strengthens participatory democracy, the revocation of mandates, the decision of the people through consultations, has been undertaken and will be continued, Sheinbaum said. This includes the reduction of the costs of the National Electoral Institute and the Electoral Tribunal, and the election of electoral advisors and magistrates by popular vote.
A constitutional reform initiative to recover the slogan that gave birth to the Mexican Revolution and that was incorporated into the Constitution of 1917 -- Effective suffrage, no re-election -- has been launched. There should be no re-election to any elected office starting with the next presidential election in 2030, she said.
President Sheinbaum also committed to implementing the constitutional reform of the judicial system adopted in September 2024 that provides for the election of magistrates to the Supreme Court and judges by popular vote starting in June 2025.
On October 2, she began the day at 6:00 am with a meeting of her ministers, followed by her first televised public press conference from 7:00 am to 9:00 am. She announced that she was leaving Mexico City to go to Acapulco to direct the aid to all the municipalities in the region that had been flooded by Hurricane John in preceding days.
This article was published in
Volume 54 Number 43 - October 14, 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/TS544310.HTM
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