EXCLUSIVE | Interview with Mexico’s Leading Presidential Contender Claudia Sheinbaum

hello everyone I'm Rania Kalik with breakthrough news I'm Zoe Alexander with people's dispatch we're here in Mexico City and we're joined by Dr Claudia shanebaum the head of government of Mexico City and one of the founders of Morena party of President Andres Manuel Lopez obrador she's a rising figure in Mexican politics and one of the Front Runners in the 2024 Mexican presidential elections Dr shine mom thank you so much for joining us oh thank you for coming so let's jump right into it you studied environmental engineering and University and today you are the head of government of one of the largest cities in the world over 20 million people in Mexico City and you're also one of the founders of the largest Progressive political party in the region Morena can you tell us about your journey into politics you went from student activism to being an elected official what were your politics like growing up well first of all my my background is physics I studied physics then Energy Engineering or my master and my PhD and uh when I was 15 years old that was the first time that I when I was in high school the first time that I got involved in a student mobilization the student movement because many people couldn't get into the high school so I was in but I was you know in solidarity with those that couldn't have the possibility of studying uh and then you know I get involved in Social politics and it was very important for us in 1988 when in general Cardenas was a candidate for presidency and it was very important for us because we came from a student movement and we decided I said us because our generation and we decided to go to ingenero Cardenas and later on I you know went to the US to study my PhD and then I returned and I was part of the University but I was involved from my parents that they were involved in the 1968 student movement so I was involved in politics but my main occupation was to be a mother and to be in the University and in 2000 president Lopez already when he was chief of government of Mexico City he invited me to be the minister of environment and I get involved and later on in 2006 with the Electoral fraud I you know I was you know with Lopez horador even though I returned to University I was you know with him in all the movement that finally get into the um burn of of Morena great well we know that pre and pan really maintained the Stranglehold over Mexican politics since 1946 in 2016 Moreno was founded to be an alternative to this and in 2018 of course Morena achieved a historic electoral Victory with the election of Andres Emanuel Lopez obrador what does this mean for the course of Mexican politics you know in 2016 when Morena was created nobody wanted to be in Morena because it was a new party and in Mexico you have to win a certain percentage of the votes uh to be an official party and it was very difficult because just a few people wanted to be in Morena and the decision to get away from PRD the the party that we were is that you know we thought at that time that there was no possibility in their party that was getting very close to the official party so we decided to create I said we decided because there were a lot of assemblies in all the country that decided to create this party and from 2016 to 2022 it's you know seven years and now we have you know the presidency 22 governors of of 32 the majority in the Congress the majority in the Senate and a lot of Municipal presidentials why is we call people want to change and it's a change from economic model we you know neoliberalism was now within the past and we have now a government that thinks in the majority things in Mexican people rather than things in a privileged group so uh and right now we have the majority and that's because people are you know happy even though a lot of media is against the president and against Morena you know people once once this change and once these fourth transformation as we call it to continue so one one thing that confirms some of what you're saying is the fact that you're currently leading all major voter intention polls for the 2024 presidential election what do you think has led to this support okay first of all I think it's that I have been in the movement always um I've been near president Lopez obrador you know always since 2012 years um and at some point people remembers that I was you know in in the Adelitas movement that we have in 2008 against the privatization of of oil of the Mexican oil um of pemex and I was you know in in many movements so they think that I can continue what president Lopez or brother is doing the second thing is uh who I am and what I have done in Mexico City if they didn't like a scientists and a politic to be a president they you know they probably don't prefer myself and also my work in Mexico City if my job here in Mexico have been bad and people were you know against me but probably I couldn't go you know to the next step and finally believe it or not is because I'm a woman you know it's now uh time for for women it's uh incredibly it's not only the social movement of young women and it's also that in Mexico we have already nine Governors and many women participating in politics so it's not as strange and at some point people see that it's uh good to have a president a female president Well we'd like to talk about one of those reasons that you spoke about which is your role as head of government of Mexico City again a city of over 20 million people which is very significant and you were elected by popular vote again in 2018 as head of government you've taken on many initiatives to address some of the structural issues facing the city and one of them that we'd like to talk about is of course femicide in the issue of women which is a huge challenge for Mexico it's a huge challenge for the region as in general but in your role you've taken a lot of different initiatives to address this issue to make the city a safer place for women so can you talk a bit about those initiatives yes in November 2019 I decided to made a an alarm for women we could say that and so why we develop 11 points for women to be safe in the city and we have now done more than that I can tell you some examples for example we have 27 centers to attend women that have violence at home we have passed many laws one that I like to to say in many places is that you know when we think violence in in in the household um or in families what we think is let's take the woman and her children to have Refuge how do you say it in Refuge Refuge so I asked myself why do you have to take out the women and put it and hide her right so now we have a law here in Mexico City that it's the aggressor goes out of the of the house so even uh if the property is not of the women of the woman of her she has the right to stay at home and the man or the aggressor has prevental measures or even he goes to jail if you know the judge decided so it's a complete different way of thinking um and also we have made 800 kilometers of safe corridors with a lot of light and buttons for for help for for the police to come we have a special number it's 765 to call for if you have improv if you are you have problems if you're a woman and many other things that so in we don't know if there are more feminine sites now than before because before they were not counted but we have to take care of that yeah and I mean you've dealt with so many other issues as well one of the biggest ones affecting the entire planet of course is climate change and you're an environmental engineer as you mentioned you were also Secretary of environment and you were part of the UN panel on climate change in 2007 which won a Nobel Peace Prize and Mexico City like all major cities deals with many issues related to this such as access to water or pollution just the general impact of climate change during your time in office what have been major initiatives that you've taken up to address these issues that affect everybody okay we have our own environmental and climate change program for the city and I can tell you some of the things that we have done we have planned about 35 million of trees and plants in the City compared to the last four years before I entered the government it's about 10 times second we have made a lot of investment in electromobility but for public transportation so we have the two cable cars the longer cable cars for public transport in the world one is in istapa laba the the West part of the city and the other one is the north part and especially for the poor people that lives in the in the mountains that go to the Metro one is 10 kilometers and the other one is almost 10 kilometers and they moved around um 120 000. that's right and then we we have already 500 trolleys in the city we made a second floor but not for for cars only for trolleys uh eight kilometer second second tier so moving to another one of those reasons that you mentioned before which is of course the transformation the fourth transformation has been The Guiding project of your party Morena so I think it's it's interesting if you can tell us a bit about what is the fourth transformation mean what has it accomplished so far and for you what is the vision for continuing this project and what's left okay we call it fourth transfer transformation because since we are a nation we have had three transport machines before the first one is the independence that began in 1810 the second one was the reform with Juanito Juarez we divided the church from the state and we have also the French invasion and the U.S invasion so 19th century especially the second half of of 19th century was very important for for Mexico and then for many many years we have a dictator that was portfolio Diaz so the third transformation was the Mexican Revolution which changed you know the government not only for more democracy but to see the government for the social rights these three Transformations were violent there were Wars there were Wars and the fourth transformation is specific because we believe in peace um and what have changed we you know in 2008 in December we can say that the economic model changed from neoliberalism that it at some point in Mexico it's equal to corruption and also to give most of the national um uh natural resources to private companies to a new way of govern that now we call it Mexican humanists and it's mainly we believe in in private investment we believe in in trade of course in free trade and we have a trade with the US and Canada but we believe that the states have to give the rights for the people what do we think is the right Education Health um household or or dwelling um um pension for for all the old elders and we believe that government has and also we believe in in that strategic areas of economies such as energy the state has to be part of of this especially electricity oil um and mainly and now lithium that it's it's going to be very important it's important and it's going to be very important in the future so it's it's you know the the basic but we believe also in trade we believe you know in in private investment and but we believe in and in wealth for Mexican people you cannot have private investment measure only by GDP or International Investment you have to measure investment public and private in wealth for the people and that's you know the big difference with nearly Wireless that believe that everything was going to be solved by the market so also with regards to the region we've seen many significant electoral victories of the left of progressive forces across Latin America in Honduras Bolivia Brazil and Colombia what is the significance of this Progressive Resurgence from Mexico and how does Mexico see itself as part of this it's it's something it's very special what it's happening right now in Latin America and uh I think people decided that the old model uh was bringing inequalities and corruption in many parts and people want to have a government that look for the people who who have less you know historically and that's very important because you know in in many parts I mean from my generation we always think Latin America as Patria Grande you know and um so for me you know it's it's something incredible that it's happening now we have to give results this Progressive wave is distinct in the presence of more female leaders people like ziamara Castro Christina Fernandez Francia Marquez and then Mexico of course just hosted the feminist International which was a gathering of all these female leaders from across the region how do you see all of this in relation to the rising tide of feminism across the region I mean it's it's obvious that women are you know getting more in public life because of the feminist movement because of the young women that have said you know stop violence and stop especially sexual violence so this is very important what I think and I I spoke in this in this International Congress and I said um let's speak about a social feminist feminism what do I think about it we women we have probably the same problems but there are some women that suffer more in Mexico City we made a survey who is more discriminated in Mexico City and it's because of the color of your skin is because if you are indigenous and it's because if you're women so if you are if you have a if you're not white if you're a women and you're indigenous you're going to be more discriminated and it's not the same for a white uh women so we have to think about it it's not only you know the same for everybody so Mexico has historic ties with the people of Cuba and in the last several years under the leadership of Andres Manuel there has been many important advances with regards to economic and medical cooperation of course that the U.S blockade presents many challenges to this but for you what do you see as the major barriers to furthering integration amongst the people of the region and specifically of course with the people of Cuba okay we are against any kind of how do you say it in English the blockade because people suffer from that it's not just that you're against certain government but people suffer and even though this blockade you know people of Cuba has you get you know um you know their own path you know medicine in Cuba is incredible compared to many other countries in the world so Cubans have to decide what is going to happen with Cuba and people of any other countries are going to decide that's a principle of foreign policy in Mexico it's in the Constitution you know the sovereignty of any country and especially you know we have ties with Cuba and right now we are you know we have been benefit from uh Cuban uh doctors that are coming to Mexico because in the other in in the last decade you know medical school have closed so much that we don't have enough doctors so we are looking in any country that want to help us to have a good public health system and the Cuban says we help you so we are receiving that help and we are paying for for that service and we're paying doctors as as if any other country have said that and that benefits Cuba so you know they have to decided what's what's their food that future not any other anybody else and you mentioned the issue of sovereignty as I'm sure you've seen we have these conservative politicians in the U.S that have been making these very provocative statements about military intervention in Mexico under the guise of fighting drug cartels and this comes after amlo has nationalized the country's lithium industry which they're not so happy about and he's also emphasized the importance of Mexican sovereignty so what's your position on U.S interference in Mexico I'm against it as I'm against you know intervention in any other other country why in Mexico you know the the drug Market between Mexico and the US it's because in the U.S have been are you know history more consumers than in Mexico so if we want to stop that it's not just violence is to talk to young people that drugs make you know especially fentanilo you know fentanyl uh destroy it human lives but it's a it's cooperation it's not invasion so you say that Invasion so it's not violence you know we we have to work together to stop the consumption and to stop the the market of fire guns that come mainly from the U.S so it's you know it's mutual so we have to work together not you know this thing that it's just I think propagandistic but we have to defend Mexico at all points so over the past several months there have been very large and important mobilizations and support of uh president Andres Manuel of the project of Morena the fourth transformation in support of the nationalization of lithium there's now one more year left of amlo serma's President can you maybe just to finalize this interview if we can kind of talk a bit about these last few years Morena being in power and really what has this meant for the people of Mexico okay it meant uh General [Music] pension for Elder people it meant a lot of scholarship for poor people Universal scholarship for high school students that go to public schools we have we're going to have a new train in in the south of of the country another train that goes from the Pacific to the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico we're going to have several ports we are going to have a lot of investment in New Roads not we're going to have we have already we have a new airport so if you take you know the last governments and this government we have a lot of public investment the highest foreign investment in Mexico and you have at the same times new rights for the people and that's why people are you know with President Lopez obradorian 70 percent is because they see that this new government change and this benefit uh for everybody and he fought for Mexico and he fought for um a new way of seeing history uh even for our ancient cultures um so Mexico have changed a lot in more than four years I mean a lot and the way I see it is that I mean people love this change the majority of course and people love their president because he have won the the heart of the people because he is a president that have fought for them for 25 years I mean you you cannot write the Mexican history the first 25 years a quarter the first quarter of the 21st century without Lopez he had changed a lot in Mexico and with a social movement that it that you know went with him but he has been the the head of that so uh you know things are changing for good in Mexico and I think that we have to continue this transformation we cannot go to the corruption and to um to the old governments that only did something for privileged people so we are in peace we have a political peace we have social peace we have violence in certain points of the country because of drug cartels but we we have to continue giving rights for the people and at the same time combating you know the drug cartels and every violence that have that are in Mexico so it's uh we're in a good place right now well Dr steinbam we want to thank you so much for joining us and giving us your time now thank you very much for you thank you

Channel: BreakThrough News

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Id: 4C4O2WlWPHw

Length: 28min 10sec (1690 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 14 2023