What will be Claudia Sheinbaum’s main challenges as president of Mexico?

Claudia Sheinbaum, member of the National Regeneration Movement, Morena, and former head of Government of Mexico City (2018-2023), will become the first female president of Mexico and successor to the current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

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Sheinbaum obtained a resounding victory in the presidential elections after leading by 32 percentage points, more than double the votes, to his rival Xóchitl Gálvez, from the opposition coalition.

Felipe Restrepo Pombo, writer and journalist, spoke in Noticias Caracol about the main challenges that the new elected president of Mexico will face.

“For me, the main challenge is that of security. It is well known that Mexico has a wave of insecurity in different of its states and that is a reality that cannot be hidden and that increased during the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The rise of drug trafficking Of course, it is a problem that does not only correspond to Mexico, but this is one of the countries where drug trafficking is centered and that implies a gigantic challenge,” he commented.

Restrepo continued his analysis by stating that, “of course, there is the issue of migrants on the border with the United States and Central America, that run throughout the country and that correspond to a problem that Claudia Sheinbaum’s government will have to face, as it is the relationship with the United States. Of course, it is very complicated, especially if Donald Trump is president again.”

For the writer and journalist Restrepo, another very big challenge for Sheinbaum is the role that AMLO will play after leaving the Presidency.

“Despite Andrés Manuel López Obrador has said that he is going to retire from politics, Well, I don’t know whether to believe him or not. We will know until the president-elect begins to govern if he will really retire or will be a power in the shadows, since he is the most relevant political figure in Mexico in the last 20 years”, he pointed.

Asked about the power that Morena accumulates in the Executive and Legislative and a possible natural wear and tear that it will have over the years, Restrepo is not sure if Claudia Sheinbaum will have it easier or more difficult than Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

“That’s a complicated question because we don’t know what the future looks like. I think that, When Andrés Manuel López Obrador came to power, it was a novel proposal, it was Morena’s first term and now this would be the second period of a Morena government and in the end it would be 12 years. That will, of course, have a gigantic wear and tear on the party, due to the same differences that have been shown during the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, because within Morena, it is natural, there are many differences and Claudia herself has many opponents within the party. . I think she has to show that she can handle all of that and, in addition, she has to show that she is an autonomous president,” she explained.

The analyst Restrepo expanded his intervention by pointing out that “a great unknown within Claudia Sheinbaum’s government program will be seeing How many tensions will he have with the former president and with the candidates to be presidents in the next period. In addition, from the opposition, which, although it barely had 30% in the vote, does represent a huge number of Mexicans who do not agree with what Morena is doing and with what the fourth transformation means.

Finally, Restrepo answered the question of whether Mexico is a polarized country: “I believe that We live in a polarized world. In Mexico, obviously, this happens. What we saw in the last elections is that Morena is a very large electoral force that dominates a large part of the territory and has enormous political power and clientelist power. This does not mean that 60% of people absolutely support Morena’s speech or that there is no polarization in Mexico. And that is another of the president’s great challenges, confront that discourse that does not agree with the social, economic and political transformation that Morena proposes.”

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