The biggest problems Mexico's first female president Claudia Sheinbaum is facing | DW News

now to Mexico and Claudia Shane Bal has swept to victory in Sunday's presidential election making history as the first woman to hold the office as the handpicked successor of leftist President andrees Manuel Lopez orador the former mayor of Mexico City was always a favorite to win the president-elect now faces some big challenges including migration relations with the United States and the country's rampant drugs related violence Mexico's biggest election in history has produced a unique winner Claudia Shane bomb is set to become the country's next president cheers and Jubilation decorated her Celebration Speech the former mayor pledged an office that leads for [Music] all we will govern for everyone men and women but as a humanistic principle of our movement for the good of every one first take care of the poor her win has resonated with the [Music] public we are proud that we are giving way to a woman to govern us you can see that she is well prepared and that is very satisfying I feel very happy very proud and fully represented as a woman because For the First Time in 200 years we have a female president Shane bomb looks set for a landslide victory over her main opponent she saw Tiel galves a businesswoman from an indigenous background conceded defeat with a final [Applause] request I would like to emphasize that my recognition of the results comes with a firm demand for Solutions and outcomes to the serious problems the country faces at least one person was killed at a polling station in pbla state and more than 30 presidential candidates were assassinated ahead of Sunday's vote making it the most violent election in Mexico's history tackling crime will be a top mandate for Claudia Shane bomb's office but she also addressed other major concerns for Mexico's public we will be AER corruption won't come back nor the Privileges nor the presidential airplane or the retirement pensions for former presidents or the presidential State guard Mexico's Constitution only allows one term presidencies this means Claudia Shane bomb has six years to take forward the issues on her agenda when her time in office begins on October 1st Jason marzac is senior director of the Atlantic council's Adrian AR Latin America Center he joins us from Washington at DC welcome to DW give us an idea if you would of who Mexico's first female president is what's the background well uh president Le Shin bomb was head of government of Mexico City uh she served as minister of the environment uh in Mexico City but also importantly she is a um she's a a scientist by profession she's a technocrat uh she has a PHD at uh at the UNAM in Mexico so she is somebody who will approach the presidency from a very pragmatic technical perspective I'll tell you when I first met with um with her team when she was head of government Mexico City they showed me a 220 page plan of government uh that was put together immediately when she took office as as a head of government mexic City and my understanding is on a regular basis perhaps even a weekly basis she's asking her team to say the extent to which those uh government plans were being addressed and implemented so you know I expect a president who is incredibly methodical uh very detail oriented uh at the same time a president who is you know the uh handpick successor uh to the current president who is uh very popular and will largely continue as your report showed with the policies of President Lopez oor and from the outside it looks as though domestic security especially drugs related violence is the biggest problem uh in the president's intree is it yeah you know security violence were the top issues as part of the as part of the the campaign the last presidential debate uh squarely focused on security uh President elect Shin bom has vowed to continue with the security policy of President Lopez or which is focused on uh uh essentially hugs and not bullets uh which is to find ways to prevent violence uh social programs uh education programs but at the same time there is going to be a real a focus and a real need for the president elect to be able to extend even Beyond some of the policies of the current president because we've seen homicide rates continue to increase in Mexico under this previous uh the previous six years and we saw one of the most violent campaigns uh in history as your report showed uh with upwards of 30 different candidates largely at a local level uh being killed as part of this uh the campaign season so uh luckily the weekend was uh free of major uh violence um and we didn't see that the polling stations either but this is going to be her priority uh Focus not only for Mexico but also for the United States for Mexico's Northern neighbor where uh security especially fentel trafficking is a priority in the batal relationship and so why is cartel violence such an intractable problem in Mexico well you know there there's been different approaches to try to combat cartel violence over the years in Mexico uh you know uh back 20 years ago the early 2000s the president of time had a strategy to try to go after the Kingpin uh that just resulted in even more violence because the different cartels ended up fighting among each other uh you know there's it's it's it historically goes back to the fact that there are areas of the country that uh don't have as much uh support from uh State security and also the ways in which state security is divided between the federal government the local government also important to point out the fact that Mexican cartels are no longer just Mexican cartels trans criminal organizations have become trans AAL criminal organizations so you see Mexican cartels uh operating all across uh this the Western Hemisphere and that gives them further power within Mexico itself okay Mexico also has a a problem uh with gender-based violence and so one wonders is the election o of the country's first female president likely to have much of of an effect on those disturbingly High uh gender based violence rates yeah well Phil I hope so so right I mean I think that Mexico is known as a country that is uh historically more machista and so the fact that Mexico now has its first woman president hopefully that will be a a a sign RIT large across Mexico of the um of the the need to uh respect the rights of women and and and Claudia Shin bomb as well will likely continue with policies at a uh now now in the presidency that will address some of the challenges that uh uh that women have faced um I think there are there are certain things that can be done at a uh at a micro level as well uh things like economic empowerment that helps to reduce uh gender-based violence uh but uh giving uh having those policies so that uh you know women have greater ownership over their own lives and there's less uh less control by by the men and and and the and the household uh that that helps to um hopefully or reduce the gender-based violence that is uh unfortunately prevalent in Mexico okay good talking to you thanks for that Jason marac from the Atlantic Council thank you very much uro sarukhan is a former Mexican ambassador to the United States he's now president of Consultant Group sakhan and Associates welcome to DW what would you say is the biggest problem facing the president elect now there's no out that public security or public in security is going to be one of the main challenges she faces we saw it rear its head in terms of the 34 candidates for elected office that were killed during this presidential cycle and it's going to be a critical challenge going forward she has promised to maintain Lor's policies in the realm of public security but that poses a huge challenge because that Paradigm seems to be broken and more importantly she will have to also tackle the issue of us Mexico collaboration which was eviscerated under the current president okay so she is uh uh Manuel o orador um she is his his his air his his hand picked successor so how then does she close those gaps and stay uh stay faithful to her mental that's going to be that's the big question everyone's asking at this point because um because of the important Victory last night uh it's going to be very hard for her to wean herself from the shadow that L will cast over her and over the country and so how does she um cve her own path forward while at the same time as she has promised to do double down on the Legacy the public policy Legacy of the current president okay so the the the president you you talked about his looming Shadow uh there will he go quietly into the night or do you expect to to see uh the current president a sort of backseat driver in the new Administration I I think he will certainly go quietly because of the results last night in Mexico City but he he he will be a force to contend with he will be in his ranch in southern Mexico he has promised to you know retire from public life but the fact that he he has such a close relationship ship with the president-elect the fact that Moren has won such a resounding Victory the fact that they are potentially on track to obtain a super majority in Congress which is very relevant because that would allow them to change the Constitution um I I think it will be hard for the for the outgoing president to sort of stay mum and stay quiet and not to be poking his finger into policy decision making that the president elect uh will be implementing in the coming months and remember we also have this horrendously long transition in Mexico elections were yesterday but Claudia shaine bam will not be assuming office until October the 1st much is being made of the fact that Mexico has chosen a woman to lead it and indeed uh the the choice on the ballot was between the two women what does that tell us if anything about where a country with such a reputation for machoness um is now well I think that certainly uh it's it's critically important that this glass ceiling has been broken in Mexico I I joke with my American friends here in DC that we've broken that glass ceiling before they've done um but it doesn't uh uh it doesn't make uh the big challenge of uh domestic violence gender parity issues and more importantly femicides which have been going through the roof these last years go away the the all for Mexico's first female president is that now she will have to walk the walk and and and really move the needle on these issues which still profoundly affect women in Mexico today good talking to you thank you for guiding us through that Ur sarukhan from sarukhan and Associates joining me now is H kppa Sant Maria assistant professor of history and international Affairs at Georgetown or George Washington excuse me University so so much's being made about the fact that Mexico now has a woman president is this a Triumph for Mexican feminism absolutely uh I think we we do need to H put the victory of climan and the fact that the second strongest candidate was also a woman soil Gales in the context of the struggle and the and the fight that feminist movement the women's movement have puted forward for decades in Mexico so I I do believe we need to understand this in the context of the of the feminist movement the strength of the women's movement of course that doesn't necessarily mean that that the new elected president will necessarily have a gender perspective in in her policies but what we can be hopeful about that so let's talk about her agenda moving forward now as we heard in the report there there has been incredible violence in this election campaign so what should she be doing or what could she be doing to tackle the problem of violence in Mexico certainly uh security and violence are definitely the top challenges in Mexico or some of the most important things affecting people in their everyday lives uh including questions of homicides femicides the killing of women because of their of their gender disappearances extortions robberies uh these are all very very strong challenges um I would say that you know what the new coming president would have to do is addressing the social and institutional roots of violence and crime in Mexico so far she has indicated a the willingness to to do some of that by continuing with some of the social programs of the current presidency and also with strengthening the prosecutor's office and the capacity to investigate of the institutions in Mexico uh however she has also pledged to continue with the militarization of public security which has raised concerns amongst human rights organizations Civil Society organizations and also the feminist movement so it appears what you're saying as we will see some of the current policies continued but the current and outgoing president Manuel Lopez orador has largely avoided direct confrontation with the drug cartels are we likely to see a different tact from the president-elect yeah I would say that the the the the policy and the approach of the current government has been mixed uh I know it has been very popular to to say that his government promoted HW and no bullets but actually if you look closely at his actions the the military have continued to participate in public security functions there have been confrontations in the on the ground with with criminal groups the problem is that it hasn't been a cohesive policy so I think we will continue to see some of these actions that unfortunately are not very cohesive that on the one hand promote the militarization of public security they also promote like punitive approaches to Crime uh and while at the same time sort of like uh abandoning certain areas or saying that they are going to promote social programs but those social programs so far don't don't have haven't shown a successful results so so I would say it's a very mixed uh Legacy that Lopez orador leaves behind and we're likely to see that with Shane bound's presidency that was hopa sentim from George Washington University thank you very much for your time and for your analysis thank you

Channel: DW News

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Keywords: DW News, claudia sheinbaum, mexico, elections, drug cartels, violence, gender related violence

Id: YwJED6ELlSE

Length: 16min 45sec (1005 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 04 2024