Claudia Sheinbaum: How Mexican Women’s Movement Paved the Way for Election of First Female President

this news is funded by viewers like you please support our work at democracynow.org we turn now to major election results out of Mexico where Claudia shaneal has made history as the country's first woman and first Jewish person elected president of Mexico Shane Bal is a climate scientist former mayor of Mexico City she's a member of the ruling Moren party and a close Ally of the Mexican president amlo andrees Manuel Lopez oor who's been credited with lifting millions of Mexicans out of poverty preliminary results show sham bam easily defeated her closest R rival trounced her uh soio Galvez uh Shane badess supporter Sunday in Mexico City I didn't get here on my own we women all got here together our female Heroes who created the nation our female ancestors our mothers our daughters our granddaughters I congratulate all the Mexicans that by participating in the election demonstrated that Mexico is a democratic country with peaceful elections Mexico's election was marred by terrible violence at least 38 candidates were assassinated during the campaign meanwhile to the north President Biden's expected to sign an executive order today that would temporarily shut down the US Mexico border after Asylum requests made by migrants surpassed 2500 a dayx Mexico's cooperation key in enforcing the measure as migrants block from entering the US will be forced to wait in Mexico for more we go to Mexico City where we're joined by Laura Carlson director of the Mexico City based international relations Think Tank MAA phisms and democracies Laura welcome back to democracy Now the significance of uh Shane bal's Victory the first woman president and what this means in Mexico and in terms of um uh us Mexican relations the big news of course Amy is that Mexico has its first woman president after 200 years of democracy and 65 male presidents the populace elected a woman for the first time with an overwhelming majority now this is more than a symbolic Victory what it means is that there's an example for younger women that women can be leaders that they can gain the support of the population and they offer greater Horizons for younger women as they begin to think about their own Futures it also means and I've been talking to women from other countries for example in in Chile with Michel bachelet as president two terms and also in Honduras yamara Castro that there's a number of doors that open for women's equality and policies that have to do with women's equality for one thing there's usually greater dialogue there are more channels of dialogue for another there's the support that women presidents can give each other especially within this region in terms of promoting gender equality policies across the region these could be a path toward greater gender equality and which is obviously very key to democracy within the region now in the clip that you played Claudia Shan bomb credited women before her with her Victory and it's very important to recognize this she owes a lot to women's movements within Mexico women's movements in Mexico began fighting decades ago for gender parity and equal representation in political positions within the country and it has not been an easy fight we're talking about a country with a traditionally Macho culture which has now achieved a landmark in democracy that even the United States has not achieved they began by requiring quotas in cada sees uh they would get a legislation passed and then the parties would find loopholes they would have to close up the loopholes they began to push for laws against political violence gender-based violence that would disqualify or even threaten women for being women and little by little they made this progress until also with the support of Claudia shamb bomb's party and the morena they achieved parody in the cabinet and within Congress at certain points in the recent history so all this was very important for her arriving now the current government government has not had a good relationship with women's movements women's movements have been disatisfied particularly with the lack of progress on the key issue of gender VI gender violence we saw massive demonstrations of over a million people throughout Mexico on March 8th International women's day protesting against the lack of progress and what they see as relative indifference of the government toward women's demands to reduce it and protect them and in fact the president has been dismissive and at times even attributed their criticisms to a manipulation of the rightwing there's a expectation that the relationship will be different with Claudia sham bom the current government does have feminists who are involved in it there's an expectation that feminists will join this government as well and that there may be new policies to direct the issue of of violence of gender based violence feminicide in Mexico is very high it's kind of hard to pin down the numbers because it has a different legal definition in different entities one of the things that she's proposing is is that there be a federal definition of femicide and that it be a crime that's prioritized for prosecution contribute in with uh groups of lawyers for women who denounce crimes of gender-based violence there's a series of proposals most of which are fairly similar to what's been been in place before so women are looking to see a more aggressive policy however there is an expectation that there will be some changes here and particularly in the tone Claudia Shambo is a very different type of politician from Andres Manuel Lopez sador he was obviously the wind in her political sales to be able to achieve a victory which is a 30o margin it's greater than even most of the polls assumed she's winning by the latest figures which is over 95% of the vote counted by 59% to 28% to her closest rival another woman candidate which which is interesting from the right soil galves as you mentioned and so his popularity which has been consistantly above 60% throughout his six-year period significantly contributed to her win as well as the popularity of his programs these programs which are called the fourth transformation which means the fourth moment of significant change in the history of Mexico from Independence the reform and the Revolution giving it this historic Dimension are really based on social programs where a majority of Mexican families are receiving benefits from the government and that was reflected as well in the in the vote so she's promised to continue to that with that and one of the big debates is how much will she create her own mark on this presidency Mexican presidents typically uh have a great deal power which means that former presidents typically Fade Into the background but there's some question about how much she'll be able to do that she's of course insinuated that this kind of a question is sexist which you could definitely see it that way and has said that she has a commitment because there's a public mandate to continue with these policies but that she will indeed be her own person uh Laura I wanted to ask you in terms of uh Shan bom's policies toward the United States and of course the the very uh hot button issue of immigration we're hearing that President Biden is about to issue an executive order that will effectively begin to close down the Border uh for migrants uh or people seeking Asylum from uh through Mexico into the United States your sense of how shamam will be attempt to deal uh with uh with the Biden Administration or whichever uh Administration takes office next January uh in terms of immigration this is a critical issue and so far what she's repeated is the slogan cooperation with respect the current government has walked a fine line in its relationship with both the presidency of Donald Trump and the presidency of Joe Biden and particularly of course on the issue of immigration Claudia sham bom has not defined a a very detailed plan for what Mexico will do with immigration and so far what that policy has been is to tow the line of US anti-immigrant policies that are focused on containing immigrant flows there's a lot of talk of going to the causes creating jobs that would that would enable people to remain in their home countries particularly in Mexico and Central America and we haven't seen the investment that would correspond to really making that kind of a policy work she has said that she will emphasize that she has said that she will respect human rights but we see a huge participation of the National Guard in Immigration control which has led to massive violations of immigrant rights here in Mexico and she has certainly not said that that will stop with the uh closure of the right to request asylum in the United States Mexico has to receive these thousands of people it is very very likely that Claudia shom will agree to receiving these people Mexico has refused to be a third safe country which is a formal agreement saying that everyone who wants to request Asylum has to do it in the first safe country they passed through but they have agreed to a number of programs that require them to receive people who are technically waiting to go through a legal process in the United States it will be a constant negotiation it's a very tricky negotiation there's always a sore point of national sovereignty involved that Mexican governments both Lopez oor and now Claudia shom will defend but they also know that they cannot anger the United States at the risk of e economic repercussions if it's Donald Trump that risk is even greater and she will have the additional factor that he's a misogynist it will not be diff it will not be easy for a woman president to deal with Donald Trump we've already already seen his relationship with Angela Merkel for example in Germany so the challenges are great democracy Now is funded by viewers like you please give today at democracynow.org

Channel: Democracy Now!

Views: 81,433

Keywords: Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, News, Politics, democracynow, Independent Media, Breaking News, World News

Id: c6MdxBaw_wE

Length: 11min 48sec (708 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 04 2024