Mexico is voting today for the historic election of its first “president”: Claudia Sheinbaum is the super favorite

MEXICO CITY. Today Mexico goes to vote in the historic elections that will lead to the appointment of the country’s first female president. On the pitch against super favorite Claudia Sheinbaumthe former mayor of Mexico City and candidate for the left-wing coalition led by the Morena party of outgoing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, there is the former Senator Xochitl Galveztech entrepreneur candidate of the three right-wing opposition parties, including the PRI which governed Mexico for 71 years.

Therefore, whatever result will come out of the polls on Sunday – when 99 million Mexican voters will be called to participate in the largest elections in the country’s history, with 20 thousand positions at the federal and local level up for grabs, including 128 seats in the Senate and 500 in the Chamber – it will be a “president” who will take over the leadership of Latin America’s second largest economy, which must deal with growing violence from criminal cartels, slowed economic growth, rampant corruption and a constant migration crisis.

Sheinbaum presents himself in the wake of continuity with the 6 years of Amnlo, as the outgoing president who was prevented by the Constitution from running again is called. “The foundations have been laid,” the 61-year-old, with a degree in physics and engineering, said as she closed the campaign last Wednesday in the Zocalo square in the capital, praising the efforts made by Lopez Obrador to reduce poverty and violence. During the electoral campaign, Sheinbaum, who polls give an advantage of up to 20%, underlined the need to strengthen some policies in the fields of energy, security and the fight against corruption, without ever criticizing Amlo, who she considered her mentor politic. And that may be her Achilles’ heel, since some say the much more charismatic, and popular despite a polarizing profile, outgoing president could remain a looming presence.

Obviously, Galvez’s message is completely opposite, as he chose to close the campaign in Monterrey, the northern city in the industrial heart of the country: «Enough with the lies! They say that Mexico is better than ever and it’s not true, Mexico wants peace and tranquility”, said the former senator, also 61 years old, who promises better social programs, fight against corruption and above all against crime, with the number of homicides reached a record of 185 thousand during the presidency of Lopez Obrador. Violence has profoundly marked these elections, even in its final stages, with the mayoral candidate of Galvez’s coalition in a city in the state of Guerrero who was killed, becoming the 36th candidate murdered since the start of the electoral campaign, despite being one of the 560 candidates and election officials who were escorted following threats.

According to López Obrador’s critics, what fueled the excessive violence was the policy adopted by the left-wing populist president of “Abrazos, no balazos”, that is, “hugs and not bullets”, in dealing with the violence of the cartels not with violence, but getting to the root of the problem, consider poverty and lack of opportunity. A policy that Amlo has also peppered with messages against the USA, and the policy of international fight against drug cartels, claiming that he does not want to be “a policeman for any foreign government, Mexico comes first”.

This policy, however, would have given greater strength to the cartels and criminal groups, thus causing the number of murders to skyrocket and political violence to increase, especially in territories that were the scene of clashes between rival cartels, on the occasion of the elections which at a local level are seen as a opportunity to gain power. According to the human rights organization Data Civica, at least 145 people linked to politics have been killed this year. A third candidate has entered the battle between the two main candidates, Jorge Alvarez Maynez, a 38-year-old little-known deputy who was nominated for president by the Movimiento Ciudadano last January. At a clear distance from Galvez, Maynez has resisted in recent weeks the appeals that have come to him from various quarters from the opposition front urging him to withdraw so as not to disperse the votes against the Morena government coalition.