June 8, Jennifer Apperti, director of the SMU Dallas Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center, for a piece outlining the challenges Mexico’s President-Elect Claudia Sheinbaum may face when she assumes the presidency in October. Published in the Austin American-Statesman under the heading Mexico’s first female president faces critical issues, challenging US relationship: https://tinyurl.com/278pturp
Mexico’s presidential election has given the country a historic first: Claudia Sheinbaum becomes the country’s first woman president. That is an important milestone in a country that continues to struggle with gender inequality.
However, the lead-up to the June 2 vote made history for another reason: This election cycle —spanning from Sept. 2023 to May 2024— became the most violent one in the country’s history. There were 24 candidates killed in 2024 alone, and according to a joint study by Mexican think tanks México Evalúa, Data Cívica and Animal Político, a total of 573 people have suffered political violence since the electoral process began. Now, Mexico’s newly elected president has to face a country not only more polarized than before, but also one where criminal violence has spread into the country’s political life.