Will Mexico’s President Sheinbaum depart from predecessor AMLO’s policies?

Sheinbaum inherits profound challenges while promising continuity of AMLO’s transformative, and controversial, policies.

Monterrey, Mexico – Claudia Sheinbaum has taken office after a landslide presidential election victory that made her Mexico’s first female leader. Having received about 60 percent of the vote, Sheinbaum is poised to replicate the high levels of popularity her predecessor and mentor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, earned through policies primarily focused on reducing poverty and inequality.

It is not yet clear how Sheinbaum will use her power in the next six years, but she will inherit profound challenges, including a series of controversial constitutional reforms, organised crime and violence, and the task of governing for Mexicans.

Before her presidential candidacy, Sheinbaum, an environmental scientist, served as the secretary of the environment for Mexico City during Lopez Obrador’s tenure as mayor of the capital. She was also a member of the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Despite her expertise in climate change, the 62-year-old has remained loyal to Lopez Obrador and his pro-hydrocarbon energy policies.

In 2018, Sheinbaum became the first female mayor of Mexico City, a position she held until resigning last year to pursue her presidential aspirations.

Sheinbaum will seek to continue the more successful policies of Lopez Obrador, known as AMLO. He rose to power with the promise of a Cuarta Transformacion (Fourth Transformation, known as 4T in Spanish), which included ending corruption, reducing violence, and expanding social programmes. The improvement in poverty indicators is one of the outgoing government’s key achievements and proudest legacies.