Presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum of the “Sigamos Haciendo Historia” coalition waves to her supporters during the closing event of the 2024 election campaign at the Zocalo on May 29, 2024 in Mexico City, Mexico.
Hector Vivas | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Mexico’s left-leaning climate scientist Claudia Sheinbaum has received enough votes to become the Latin American country’s first-ever female president.
The country’s electoral institute published a flash estimate late Sunday evening that Sheinbaum had won the presidential election. The estimate has a margin of error of +/-1.5%, the institute said.
In the landmark vote, Sheinbaum defeated her election rival, center-right businesswoman Xóchitl Gálvez, after dominating in the polls for months.
A protégé of her longtime ally and mentor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum is now poised to succeed AMLO when his six-year term as president ends on October 1.
Sheinbaum, a former Mexico City mayor who was dubbed the “Lady of the Ice” by her political rivals, has vowed to largely continue AMLO’s policies and has won the support of his ruling Morena Party.
Sheinbaum previously served as an author on a report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Nevertheless, the 61-year-old did not make Mexico’s climate threats a central part of her election campaign.
Analysts have said Mexico’s next government will face significant fiscal and structural realities that will likely lead to difficult decisions when it comes to investment plans, its popular but costly social programs and, perhaps most importantly, its state-owned oil company Bringing Pemex into line.
“Without a concrete solution to the elephant in the room – Pemex – neither external market sentiment nor ratings agencies are convinced of Sheinbaum’s fiscal quality,” analysts at Verisk Maplecroft said in a recent research note.
“Their main proposal – move things forward by refinancing Pemex’s upcoming debt obligations ($6.8 billion in 2025, followed by $10.5 billion in 2026 – and a total of $39 billion by the end of the decade) – is unlikely to be resolved with investors given Pemex’s deep structural problems,” they added.
General view of Mexican presidential candidate of the ruling Morena Party Claudia Sheinbaum’s campaign rally in Zocalo Square in Mexico City on May 29, 2024.
Pedro Pardo | Afp | Getty Images
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2024-06-03 06:25:42
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