Dfter Brazil under Dilma Roussef, Chile with Michelle Bachelet and Argentina with former President Cristina Kirchner, Mexico too will soon be governed by a woman. In view of the 2024 elections, in fact, the left-wing Morena party, currently in government, has nominated a candidate Claudia Sheinbaumformer mayor of Mexico City, while the coalition of the conservative Pan party chose Xóchitl Gálvezsenator since 2018, elected as an independent.
A female president of Mexico
The event is unprecedented in a country like Mexico dominated by “machismo”. The name of the new President will be known on June 2nd. «It will be a historic competition – commented political analyst Palmira Tapia. – Both had to face and defeat a system made by and for men. And the fact that they made their way in such a rough environment as Mexican politics is a huge merit that must be highlighted.”
Who is Claudia Sheinbaum
Claudia Sheinbaum she is the protégé of the current president Obrador: mayor of Mexico City for three years, she became an expert on energy issues after having studied physics and energy engineering in Mexico and did research for his doctorate at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. She is a biologist and scientist, she was among the few to understand the gravity of the pandemic and he forced everyone to wear masks and get vaccines.
On the left, Xóchitl Gálvez, candidate of the conservatives. On the right Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, former mayor of Mexico City /Getty Images)
Who is Xóchitl Gálvez
On the right, however, there is the coalition that is focusing on the senator Xóchitl Gálvez, indigenous origins that he proudly claims. She is certainly not the latest arrival, her professional CV is remarkable: entrepreneur, robotics engineer, loves to underline her belonging to the Otomi tribe, wearing the huipil, the typical Mexican embroidered garment. She is a veteran of politics and she knows how to keep at bay the envy of those within the party who experience her success with a certain discomfort. The President Obrador seems to fear iteven if Sheinbaum already starts with 50 percent of the preferences over her opponent.
The challenge that will go down in history
Today’s start of the electoral campaign marks another chapter in the struggle of millions of Mexican women for gender equality in political life is a normality and not an exception. A challenge that, whichever of the two wins, will go down in history. She will be the first female President of the United States of Mexico, head of the federal Executive, head of State and Government and supreme commander of the Armed Forces.
A turning point in a country still characterized by an intense and rampant “machismo” expressed daily in hundreds of subtle ways to reach its most extreme form, femicide, which has seen a very high rate of deaths in the country for too many years.
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