Claudia Sheinbaum, the scientist who comes to lead a sexist Mexico: who is the first elected president?

It is necessary to review old family images to see her fun in her childhood games, or as a teenager smiling flirtatiously for the camera.

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The campaign, however, revealed an affectionate and smiling woman who distributed kisses and hugs among thousands of supporters, and passionately defended the “fourth transformation”, a project of the outgoing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

“This June 2 we are going to make history. The transformation will continue to advance,” he proclaimed in recent days in the Zócalo, Mexico’s main public square, during his massive campaign closing.

But in 1987 she was a reserved student studying for a master’s degree in energy engineering at UNAM. “Neither she nor I were into socializing with everyone,” remembers Guillermo Robles, one of her classmates.

Sheinbaum then completed a doctorate in environmental engineering, for which he spent four years researching in the United States, and was part of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

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The magnetism of this young woman of Jewish descent lay in her left-wing convictions that made her a member of the University Student Council (CEU), says Robles.

That group stopped an attempt to privatize the university and was a quarry of personalities from the government of López Obrador, his political godfather.

Although Sheinbaum “was not one of the main” leaders, according to Robles, her commitment did not af
fect her even when she was pregnant with her daughter Mariana, now 36 years old.

That conviction has a family vein. His mother, Annie Pardo, a renowned biologist, was expelled as a university professor for denouncing the 1968 massacre of students in Plaza Tlatelolco.
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Temperance and discretion mark the performance of Sheinbaum, whose grandparents came to Mexico from Bulgaria and Lithuania fleeing the Second World War.

As mayor of a district of Mexico City, faced the collapse of a school during the 2017 earthquake that killed 26 people, including 19 children.

Methodically, he insisted that irregularities detected in the construction were not attributable to the mayor’s office.

She also handled with aplomb two critical moments as mayor of the capital (2018-2023): the pandemic and the collapse of a subway line that left 26 dead.

The use of scientific methods and technology reflected Sheinbaum’s imprint in the management of covid-19, which, however, left a high mortality rate.

“He has an impressive capacity for analysis, for reading data and finding solutions,” says Tatiana Clouthier, López Obrador’s former Economy Minister, today his campaign spokesperson.

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After the collapse of the metro line in 2021, he defended his team and opted for a controversial negotiation with the construction company – owned by magnate Carlos Slim – to compensate victims and avoid lawsuits.

“Governing is making decisions. You have to make the decision and assume the pressures that can be generated,” argues in the documentary Sheinbaum, who largely led the voting intention for this Sunday’s elections.

One of those determinations will be to definitively leave neoliberalism “behind” and improve the economy of workers. “A country cannot advance when only the most prosperous are favored,” he stated in the Zócalo.
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PIn campaign, A camera caught her angrily claiming unfair treatment from the party while she was competing for the presidential candidacy with former Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, whose attacks failed to exasperate her..

That coldness also works against him.

She never looked at or called her main opponent, the center-right Xóchitl Gálvez, by name during three debates in which she harshly attacked her.

“You are still cold, heartless, I would call you the ice lady,” Gálvez snapped, criticizing her for not having the “charisma” of López Obrador.

By contrast, Sheinbaum has been funny and relaxed in TikTok videos.

In November 2023, she also shared the news of her second marriage to Jesús Tarriba, her college sweetheart with whom she reunited via Facebook in 2016.

She is attentive to the women on her campaign team and a supporter of horizontal leadership.

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“Despite being a scientist, she has something of a social fighter who makes a very good combination of mind and heart,” says Clouthier.

Among the challenges you will face are The expansion of organized crime, which thrives on other crimes such as extortion, “is the most intimidating problem whoever is elected will have to face,” says Michael Shifter, researcher at the Inter-American Dialogue analysis center, based in Washington..

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The president-elect will also have the challenge of maintaining the social programs on which the outgoing president López Obrador bases his popularity, with a fiscal deficit of 5.9 percent and low growth (an average of 0.8 percent during the six-year term). .

Another challenge will be the complex relationship with the United States, Mexico’s main trading partner, says Shifter.