The passing of the presidential sash each and every six years is all the time the most important and symbolic instance in Mexico.
However on Tuesday, when it was once positioned over the shoulder of Claudia Sheinbaum – the primary lady to carry the best possible place of work within the nation – it was once actually an historical watershed second in additional than 200 years of contemporary Mexican historical past.
It’s been a protracted street which led the primary feminine mayor of Mexico Town to damage the glass ceiling in Mexican politics once more, this time at nationwide stage.
To very large cheers of “Presidenta!” ringing out each outside and inside the congressional chamber, she raised her fist in victory, savouring the instant.
She started her first speech as president by way of thanking her political mentor and predecessor within the best activity, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, calling him “an important political chief and social warrior in Mexico’s fashionable historical past”.
He leaves place of work, she mentioned, with “the best love of his other people”.
On that time, she isn’t unsuitable. López Obrador is deeply loved by way of his supporters and his recognition rankings in his ultimate days in place of work have been upper than the ones of another president in Mexican historical past.
He without a doubt leaves very large sneakers for her to fill, however President Sheinbaum was once fast to fret that she was once no longer daunted.
“It’s time for girls,” she mentioned to applause from the governing birthday party’s lawmakers. “Ladies have arrived to form the future of our gorgeous country.”
As she set out her time table as president, it was once once more transparent that López Obrador’s imaginative and prescient for Mexico had supplied a vast blueprint.
She suggested other people to evaluate – the use of chilly laborious details – what were accomplished over the last six years.
“How have been 9.5 million Mexicans pulled from poverty?” she requested.
“How was once unemployment decreased? Higher well-being created? The minimal salary again and again higher, however no longer inflation?”
Her conclusion was once easy: thru “Mexican humanism” – the identify she provides to the political challenge she has shared together with her mentor, López Obrador, for the most productive a part of 20 years.
Naturally, her detractors will contest the rosy symbol of the Mexican economic system she painted.
However Sheinbaum promised to “consolidate the well being provider into the best quality unfastened public healthcare device” and to create an extra 300,000 puts in upper schooling in new public top colleges and universities.
“Well being and schooling are rights of the Mexican other people, no longer privileges nor products,” she insisted.
There are obviously going to be main demanding situations forward, too.
The drug battle in Mexico continues to rage out of keep an eye on, in particular within the states of Sinaloa and Chiapas.
The fallout from a sour break up within the Sinaloa Cartel has noticed gun battles rage within the streets of the norther town of Culiacán and may not be simple for any chief to convey below keep an eye on.
Sheinbaum’s critics say her studies in making improvements to the safety of the capital town can’t merely be carried out on the federal stage – particularly, they argue, if she follows López Obrador’s manner and opts in opposition to tackling the cartels head on.
Surely the shadow of her predecessor will loom huge.
The person she referred to as “brother, good friend, compañero” insists he’s going to be stepping again from political existence and playing his retirement at his ranch in Chiapas.
However some suspect he could also be too hooked on politics to stroll clear of it solely.
Sheinbaum’s upward push to the presidency is the fruits of her time at his aspect, her stellar occupation from pupil activist to local weather scientist to mayor of Mexico Town now entire that she has been sworn in because the country’s chief.
It’s been an ordinary adventure in and of itself – one that she insists is handiest simply starting.
“I’m a mom, grandmother, scientist, a girl of religion, and now, president!” she mentioned as she wrapped up her inaugural speech.
She promised to control for all Mexicans and put her “wisdom, power, my previous and my very existence” to paintings to protect Mexico.
There’ll drive on her to reach her personal proper from the very get started.
Alternatively, the numerous hundreds of thousands of Mexican women and men who voted for her will indubitably grant her a bit of time and the good thing about the doubt.
“I received’t will let you down,” she advised them.