The TEPJF said in a statement on Wednesday that its upper chamber dismissed 240 complaints against the election results as well as one request from a citizen for the election to be annulled.

The court also dismissed a claim of election irregularities filed by Xóchitl Gálvez, the candidate for the main opposition parties at the June 2 election.

“Afterward, the final calculation of the presidential election was carried out, which concluded that the candidate Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo obtained the majority of votes,” the TEPJF said.

It said that Sheinbaum, the ruling Morena party’s presidential candidate, received more than 35.9 million votes or 59.76% of the total number of ballots cast.

The presidential election was found to be “valid because it was free, authentic and periodic,” the TEPJF said.

“Furthermore, it complied with the principles that govern the organization of elections: certainty, legality, independence, impartiality, maximum publicity and objectivity,” the court said.

Given that she “satisfies the requirements to be president of the United Mexican States” in accordance with the Mexican Constitution, the upper chamber of the Federal Electoral Tribunal “declared Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo the first presidenta electa,” or female president-elect, of Mexico, the TEPJF said.

Sheinbaum, who will be sworn in on Oct. 1, will receive a certificate confirming her majority victory at the TEPJF headquarters in Mexico City on Thursday.

Her comprehensive victory on the first Sunday of June ensures the continuation of the so-called “fourth transformation” (4T) of Mexico, initiated by current President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

A coalition led by Morena also won resounding victories in the Chamber of Deputies and Senate elections on June 2, ensuring that Sheinbaum will have ample support for her legislative agenda.

That agenda includes a package of constitutional reform proposals López Obrador sent to Congress in February.

Sheinbaum said in June she would put forth two of her own constitutional reform proposals — one that would ensure that all women aged 60 to 64 receive government financial support and another that would guarantee educational scholarships for all public school students.

The president-elect has pledged to build “the second story” of the 4T, and declared that “shared prosperity” will be the “central axis” of her 2024-2030 government. She has already named the vast majority of her cabinet ministers.

A protégé of López Obrador who served as environment minister in Mexico City when the current president was mayor there in the early 2000s, Sheinbaum will provide continuity in a range of areas, including by maintaining significant government support for Mexico’s most disadvantaged people.

This week, she announced she will follow in AMLO’s footsteps and hold 7 a.m. press conferences at the National Palace once she has assumed the nation’s top job.

Among the areas in which she could differ from AMLO is energy policy, as she is committed to accelerating Mexico’s transition to renewables.

More reading on Claudia Sheinbaum 

• Who is Claudia Sheinbaum? A profile on Mexico’s first woman president
• Claudia Sheinbaum is elected the first female president of Mexico
• What would Claudia Sheinbaum do as president?
• A wish list for President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum from our CEO

With reports from El Financiero

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Since then, the peso has depreciated, Morena has announced its intention to approve a controversial judicial reform once the recently-elected lawmakers assume their positions in September, Sheinbaum has sought to calm investors on repeated occasions, and the president-elect has announced virtually all of her cabinet appointments.

Mexico News Daily recently spoke to Pedro Casas Alatriste, executive vice president and CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico (AmCham), to get his views on the election results, and the political and economic developments since June 2.

On the election results 

Casas told MND that “AmCham is fiercely non-partisan, but not non-political,” and noted that the business organization he leads engaged with the teams of both Sheinbaum and opposition candidate Xóchitl Gálvez in the lead-up to the elections.

He also pointed out that AmCham has worked with administrations in both Mexico and the United States for more than 100 years.

“We see this like any other political change in history. We’re going to work with whoever is in government,” Casas said.

“With that being said we do believe that having absolute majorities and a lack of counterweights and checks and balances — regardless of who is in power — is something that makes people nervous,” he added.

On a positive note, the AmCham CEO said that he sees “an attitude of more open dialogue with the private sector” from members of Sheinbaum’s team.

That attitude has raised private sector hopes about the incoming government, Casas said.

“Nonetheless, everyone [in the private sector] is still adopting a wait-and-see attitude,” he added.

On Morena’s legislative agenda 

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador sent numerous constitutional reform proposals to Congress in February, among which is one to overhaul Mexico’s judiciary.

Casas said that the government’s plan for the judiciary — which Sheinbaum also supports — is the most concerning of the reform proposals put forward by López Obrador.

There are a lot of aspects of the reform that “could potentially be positive,” but other aspects are “pretty harmful,” he said.

The most criticized aspect of the reform is that which would allow citizens to directly elect Supreme Court justices and other judges from candidates nominated by the president of the day.

Casas said that AmCham would seek to have a “proactive dialogue” about the reform with members of Congress and other stakeholders.

AmCham is “not against reforming the judicial power” per se, but it does have reservations about the government’s proposal in its current form, he said.

On Sheinbaum’s cabinet announcements 

“Everyone has been quite positively surprised by the cabinet announcements,” Casas said, referring to appointments that include former foreign affairs minister Marcelo Ebrard as economy minister and current security minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez as interior minister.

The appointments provide certainty about what is going to happen during Sheinbaum’s administration, “at least for the first year or couple of years,” he said.

Casas said that each of the ministers appointed so far is “quite technical and savvy” in the area he or she will have responsibility for.

On the market’s reaction to the election results 

“The market has become, probably now more than ever, part of that non-existent counterweight on the government,” Casas said, noting that there will be “a weakened opposition” to stand up to Morena party initiatives.

Both the Mexican peso and the Mexican stock exchange lost ground the day after the election. The peso remains well below its pre-election position against the US dollar.

Casas said that companies see the market as a potential constraint on some government initiatives. AmCham considers that likelihood “a positive,” he added.

On how Mexico can capitalize on the nearshoring opportunity 

Casas said that more government investment is needed in infrastructure and the energy transition; that steps need to be taken to ensure that Mexico has the “right” human capital available; and that the government must guarantee security and rule of law in the country.

“They are the basics, the 101 [of what’s needed],” he said.

“But there are two big issues that are also very relevant,” Casas said.

“One is incentives and having a more proactive industrial policy, in terms of saying ‘we really want this to happen and this is how we’re going to support it,'” he said.

“From this administration, we’ve had nothing, absolutely nothing,” said Casas, who suggested that nearshoring-focused tax incentives announced by the federal government late last year won’t have any significant impact on attracting nearshoring investment.

“We really need to have a national … and [even] regional, hemispheric strategy, … which has to be accompanied by the second thing — a truly serious investment promotion strategy,” he said.

Casas was critical of the current government’s decision to shut down the international trade and investment agency ProMéxico, describing it as a “deadly mistake.”

One consequence of the error, he said, is that only 3% of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Mexico in the first quarter of 2024 was “new investment.”

“Nobody is going out and saying, ‘Hey guys, this is the place to invest,'” Casas said.

“For me, that … [low level of new investment] makes the story very clear … and that’s what we should be addressing as a country,” he said.

If Mexico can add significant amounts of “new investment” to the already high levels of “reinvestment of profits” — which accounted for 97% of FDI between January and March – “then we’re really going to be talking about a massive change in the Mexican economy,” Casas said.

“That’s what we should be aiming for,” he added.

Pedro Casas spoke with Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies and Mexico News Daily CEO Travis Bembenek 

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The Electoral Institute of Michoacán (IEM) says it’s investigating the cases of eight municipal positions intended for women under gender parity laws that were won by male candidates posing as transgender women.

Despite their fraudulent actions, the winning male candidates could take office unless their cases are pursued in court, said Claudia Zavala Pérez, an advisor to the National Electoral Institute (INE). They were elected on June 2.

Zavala Pérez condemned the acts of “identity theft” and called the men’s actions “unacceptable and unworthy” while speaking in front of the INE’s Gender Equality and Non-Discrimination Commission.

“Society must be outraged,” she declared. “We must raise our voices because what happened cannot be allowed.”

She highlighted that these men dishonestly took positions meant for individuals who have historically faced discrimination. In at least one case, the cisgender man who registered as a trans woman candidate never even stopped referring to himself with male pronouns.

The controversy brings to light the misuse of affirmative action policies designed to provide marginalized groups with political representation.

In Mexico, parity laws have been in place since 2021 to ensure diverse representation in elected positions, including candidates from sexually diverse groups, people with disabilities, Afro-Mexicans and Indigenous people.

Zavala Pérez pointed out that requiring proof of sexual identity was considered discriminatory, a stance upheld by the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF). Thus, the cisgender men did not have to certify their transgender status in any way when registering as candidates.

The fraudulent activities were first flagged by LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, which accused multiple political parties of manipulating the system.

Despite the complaints, Ignacio Hurtado, president of the IEM, noted that the annulment of the elections requires appeals to the electoral courts, a process that has seen limited action.

According to a report from the digital news outlet Infobae, the elected men who are accused are:

• Alberto Orobio Arriaga, elected mayor of Charapan
• Martín Alexander Escalera Bautista, elected mayor of Peribán
• Daniel Herrera Martín del Campo, elected mayor of Tanhuato
• José Enrique Mora Cárdenas, elected mayor of Purépero
• Octavio Chávez Aguirre, elected mayor of Lagunillas,
• Rubén Torres García, elected to the city council of Charapan
• Apolonio Ureña Martínez, elected to the city council of Tumbiscatío
• Jorge Luis Estrada Garibary, elected to the city council of Ecuandureo

The Electoral Court of Michoacán (TEEM) validated Chávez Aguirre’s win in Lagunillas, though the remaining mayors and council members-elect have yet to be confirmed.  

Their political parties include the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), the Labor Party (PT), the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM), the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and the Solidarity Encounter Party (PES), along with various coalitions.

The use of gender quotas — which require parties to choose a certain number of women as candidates in various races — has been responsible for bringing more women than ever into Mexican politics since the electoral reform of 2014.

But Zavala Pérez underscored the importance of the Michoacán electoral commission taking action in order to prevent future fraudulent cases. 

There have been other notable cases of fraud, such as when eight elected female federal deputies resigned in 2009 and were replaced by their designated substitutes, all men; and in 2018, when the Oaxaca state electoral institute blocked the candidacies of 17 men masquerading as transgender women.

The abuses of 2024 have led to calls for legislative reform.

Councilor Rita Bell López Vences criticized the fraudulent actions, stating, “There is fraud against the law when in fact there are [diverse] people who want to have a political career … It is important to [penalize] all the people involved in these cases, including the parties themselves.”

With reports from Sin Embargo, Infobae, El Economista and Quadratin

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Sheinbaum, who will take office on Oct. 1, announced that former foreign affairs minister Marcelo Ebrard will be her economy minister, while current Foreign Affairs Minister Alicia Bárcena will be her environment and natural resources minister.

Juan Ramón de la Fuente, Mexico’s former permanent representative to the United Nations and head of Sheinbaum’s transition team, will succeed Bárcena as foreign affairs minister.

The other three appointments to Sheinbaum’s cabinet include Rosaura Ruiz as minister for science, humanities, technology and innovation; Julio Berdegué as agriculture and rural development minister; and Ernestina Godoy as legal counsel to the president.

Ruiz will lead a new ministry that will incorporate the National Council of Humanities, Science and Technology.

The president-elect previously announced that current Finance Minister Rogelio Ramírez de la O would remain in his position after she takes office.

She said Thursday that the six additional cabinet members who will be sworn in with her on Oct. 1 are “first-class men and women with experience” who will “help us a lot to achieve our objectives in the next six years.”

Two of the appointees, Ruiz and Godoy, were members of Sheinbaum’s government when she was mayor of Mexico City between 2018 and 2023.

The president-elect, who won the June 2 presidential election in a landslide, said she will announce more cabinet appointments next week.

Among the key appointments still to be announced are the interior minister, security minister, defense minister and energy minister roles.

What are the backgrounds of the cabinet appointees?

Marcelo Ebrard

The soon-to-be economy minister served as foreign affairs minister in the current federal government between December 2018 and June 2023, when he stepped down to pursue the ruling Morena party’s nomination for the 2024 presidential election.

He was runner-up to Sheinbaum in the polling process to select the candidate.

Ebrard was mayor of Mexico City between 2006 and 2012 and served as a minister in the capital during President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s 2000-05 mayorship. He has also served as a federal deputy.

Ebrard will succeed Raquel Buenrostro as economy minister.

Alicia Bárcena

Mexico’s next environment minister has been foreign affairs minister for almost a year, succeeding Ebrard last July.

She was Mexico’s ambassador to Chile between September 2022 and June 2023 after serving almost 14 years as executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Bárcena will succeed María Luisa Albores as environment minister.

Juan Ramón de la Fuente

The soon-to-be foreign affairs minster was Mexico’s permanent representative to the UN between 2018 and 2023.

A psychiatrist by profession, de la Fuente was rector of the National Autonomous University (UNAM) between 1999 and 2007 and federal health minister during the presidency of Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000).

He will replace Bárcena as foreign affairs minister.

Rosaura Ruiz 

The future science minister headed up the Mexico City Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation for four years during Sheinbaum’s 2018-23 mayorship in the capital.

Ruiz, who has a PhD in biology, was head of UNAM’s Faculty of Science between 2010 and 2018.

When she becomes minister for science, humanities, technology and innovation she will effectively succeed María Elena Álvarez-Buylla, the current director of the National Council of Humanities, Science and Technology. 

Julio Berdegué 

Mexico’s next agriculture minister was assistant director-general for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations between 2017 and 2022. He also served as the organization’s regional representative for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Originally from Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Berdegué has worked for and with a number of other international organizations, including the International Institute for Environment and Development.

The agronomist will succeed Víctor Villalobos as agriculture minister.

Ernestina Godoy

The woman set to be Sheinbaum’s chief legal advisor was Mexico City attorney general between 2018 and 2024. She previously served as a federal and Mexico City lawmaker.

Godoy, who completed her law degree at UNAM in 1979, has held a range of other government positions in Mexico City.

She will succeed María Estela Ríos as legal counsel of the federal executive.

Mexico News Daily 

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President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum announced the results of the polls at a press conference on Monday.

The judicial reform proposal — which seeks to allow citizens to directly elect Supreme Court justices and other judges, among other objectives — was sent to Congress in February as part of a large package of proposed constitutional changes.

Since Morena’s comprehensive victory in the June 2 elections, concerns over the likelihood of the approval of the reform proposals — particularly the judicial one — have caused the Mexican peso to depreciate around 8% against the US dollar.

Critics say that some of the proposals, including one to disband a number of autonomous government agencies, will reduce checks and balances on executive power in Mexico.

Sheinbaum supports the proposals, but pledged last week that there would be “broad consultation” before they are considered by the new Congress, which will be sworn in Sept. 1.

The surveys — conducted by the polling companies De las Heras and Enkoll, and Morena’s Polling Commission, at homes across the country — are part of the consultation process.

A total of more than 3,800 people responded to the three surveys, which were conducted between June 14 and 16.

The margin of error was between +/- 2.57% and +/- 2.9%, while the confidence level was 95%, according to the two polling companies and Morena’s Polling Commission.

4 in 5 respondents believe the judicial reform is necessary

Over 80% of respondents to the Enkoll (83%) and Morena (81%) polls said they believed that carrying out the judicial reform is necessary, while 77% of those polled by De las Heras said the same.

The percentage of respondents who said the reform wasn’t necessary ranged from 12%-14%, while the remainder of those polled didn’t respond or didn’t have an opinion one way or the other.

Of note is that around half of those polled — 54%, 51% and 49%, according to the different polls — hadn’t heard of the proposed reform before they were asked about in the survey.

However, the majority of those people were evidently not dissuaded from expressing support for the proposed reform, despite their lack of knowledge about it.

López Obrador argues that Mexico’s judiciary is at the service of the nation’s elite rather than ordinary people, and that it needs renewal. Sheinbaum agrees.

A key aim of the proposal is to allow citizens to elect Supreme Court justices from candidates nominated by the sitting president, the Congress and sitting Supreme Court justices themselves.

Among its other objectives are to reduce the number of Supreme Court justices from 11 to nine, to shorten their terms from 15 years to 12, and to cap their maximum permitted salary at the same level as that earned by the president.

Referring to the survey results, Sheinbaum said Monday that “a very high percentage of the population believes that it is necessary” to overhaul the judiciary.

She noted that the percentage of poll respondents who are in favor of the reform is even higher than the 59.75% support she attracted in the presidential election on June 2.

Around 7 in 10 respondents believe citizens should elect Supreme Court justices and other judges 

Respondents to the three polls were specifically asked how Supreme Court (SCJN) justices should be chosen, and how other judges and magistrates should be selected.

Exactly three-quarters of respondents to both the Enkoll and Morena polls said that the Mexican people should elect SCJN justices, while 68% of those polled by De las Heras said the same.

Between 18% and 25% of the respondents said that the Senate should elect the justices, as is currently the case. A short list of three candidates are submitted to the Senate by the sitting president when a position for a justice becomes available.

However, late last year, López Obrador directly appointed Lenia Batres Guadarrama as a SCJN justice after the Senate on two occasions failed to endorse any of the candidates he put forward. It was the first time in Mexican history that a president made a direct appointment.

Asked how lower-ranking justices and magistrates should be chosen, around seven in 10 respondents again responded that citizens should elect them. Between 19%-24% of those polled said that the judicial power itself should choose the judges that preside over Mexico’s courts.

A majority of respondents believe all or most judges are corrupt

One in five of those polled by De las Heras said they believed that all justices, judges and magistrates are corrupt, while 17% of respondents to the Enkoll survey and 15% of those who spoke with Morena pollsters said the same.

Much larger numbers of people said that “the majority” of judges are corrupt: 44% (Enkoll); 40% (Morena) and 38% (De las Heras).

Thus 55%-61% of those polled either said that all or most judges are corrupt, sharing an opinion that López Obrador and other government officials have voiced on countless occasions.

Around three in 10 respondents (26%-34%) said that only a few judges are corrupt, while only 2%-5% of those polled said that no judges are corrupt. The remainder declined to share an opinion.

Almost 9 in 10 respondents support the creation of an independent judicial watchdog 

The pollsters also asked respondents whether they agreed or disagreed with the creation of an independent body to oversee the judicial system, investigate alleged misdeeds and sanction judges where appropriate.

Between 85%-89% of respondents said they agreed with the idea, while only 7%-9% disagreed.

As the proposed judicial reform would change Mexico’s constitution, it requires support from two-thirds of lawmakers to pass Congress.

Morena and its allies won a supermajority in the lower house on June 2, but fell just short in the Senate, meaning that they will have to gain the support of a few opposition senators in order to approve constitutional reform proposals put forward by López Obrador and Sheinbaum, who will be sworn in as Mexico’s first female president on Oct. 1.

With reports from El Economista, Reforma and El Financiero

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PRD national president Jesús Zambrano effectively acknowledged the demise of the leftist party at an event in Mexico City on Saturday.

“It hurts, but it’s up to me to say it. … The PRD we built 35 years ago no longer exists as such,” said Zambrano, who represented the party in the Chamber of Deputies during three separate three-year terms.

However, the “enthusiasm” to “continue fighting for a democracy that today is under threat” is still “alive,” he said.

“I can’t hide my sadness, … but I hope that with all this political capital we accumulated … we have something to start a new cycle with,” Zambrano said.

The National Electoral Institute (INE) announced last week that it had advised the PRD that it had entered a “period of precaution” because it didn’t reach “3% of the valid vote” in any of the three federal elections held earlier this month.

The PRD contested the elections as part of a three-party opposition bloc that also included the National Action Party (PAN) and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

The INE said in a statement last Monday that, “in accordance with article 94 of the General Law on Political Parties,” a party “enters a period of precaution” when it faces “any” situation that would cause it to lose its registration as a “national political party.”

The PRD is set to be deregistered at the national level because it obtained just 1.86% of the vote in the presidential election, in which it supported Xóchitl Gálvez; only 2.43% of the vote in the Chamber of Deputies election; and just 2.27% of the vote in the Senate election.

The INE will appoint a person this Wednesday to carry out the process to liquidate the PRD.

Founded in 1989 by a group of people that included López Obrador and well-known leftist political figure Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, the PRD quickly became Mexico’s third political force, after the PRI and the PAN.

Cárdenas represented the party at the 1994 and 2000 presidential elections, after he finished second to the PRI’s Carlos Salinas in the 1988 contest, which was widely considered to have been fraudulent. The National Democratic Front he represented in 1988 is considered the immediate predecessor to the PRD.

López Obrador won the 2000 mayoral election in Mexico City on a PRD ticket, and subsequently represented the party at the 2006 and 2012 presidential elections, which he lost to the PAN’s Felipe Calderón and the PRI’s Enrique Peña Nieto, respectively.

He won the 2018 election as the candidate for the Morena party he founded just a few years earlier, while the PRD joined the PAN in a right-left alliance that backed Ricardo Anaya.

On Saturday, Zambrano acknowledged that the “majority” of Mexican voters “rejected Xóchitl and the PRI-PAN-PRD coalition” on June 2.

“They didn’t trust us. We didn’t win them over. … There was never a campaign strategy that was discussed and agreed to by everybody. … The war room operated without coordination with the leadership of the parties,” he said.

On social media after the party event, Zambrano said that if the PRD loses its national registration “we must work for the legal registration of a new party, with a new name, leaving behind the practices and bad habits that caused the current results.”

On Monday, López Obrador acknowledged the PRD leader’s remarks, and said that party he helped found “played an important role in its time because … [it] avoided that bipartisan attempt [to control politics by the PRI and the PAN].”

“And it was a party that arose from the people, from an electoral fraud. … It fought for just causes,” he added.

With reports from El Financiero, El Economista and Latinus

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The collapse of the German Weimar Republic in 1933, when Adolf Hitler — already a democratically elected chancellor — began to urge his supporters to take to the streets, demonize his critics and political opponents, to label the media as “enemies of the people,” subordinate the judiciary, science, and universities to politics, and to subsequently cancel elections, is a clear example of how a state and democracy can be destroyed from within.

In “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,” Karl Marx began the text with the famous phrase (originally formulated by Hegel) that history repeats itself, “the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.”

AMLO leaves a weakened and inefficient state

In Mexico, we have witnessed in these almost six years of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s presidential term a demolition of the state and its institutions. And no, before readers have a fit, I am not comparing López Obrador to Hitler or what is happening in Mexico in 2024 to Nazi totalitarianism in Germany in 1933. 

But on Election Day, the majority of the Mexican electorate unequivocally chose to give six more years to this administration’s vision of the nation. And the problem is that this project is potentially fraught with limitations and own goals, as we head towards the transition on Oct 1. One of the main challenges we as a country — and especially President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum — will face is receiving a deeply weakened and dysfunctional state.

The urgent issue of our time for the liberal state that we should all advocate for has nothing to do with its ideological orientation, or the size and vocation of the government in power, themes around which the right and the left have been in constant ideological and political-electoral struggle for decades. The central issue, in my view, is its efficiency and effectiveness.

The COVID-19 pandemic made this clear: the essential difference in how various nations around the world fared was not whether some governments were right-wing and others left-wing, or between democratic and authoritarian regimes; the essential fault line was between effective and ineffective governments.

What is happening today with the institutions of the Mexican state is simply the logical conclusion of the obsession that has largely driven López Obrador. From the beginning of his administration in 2018, the most serious danger on the horizon was always going to be an imperial presidency, all-powerful and centralizing, and the elimination of checks and balances as well as autonomous institutions that a generation of Mexicans laboriously worked to establish over more than three decades to anchor and deepen our nascent democracy.

Government institutions and agencies, as well as their powers and responsibilities, and the few relatively depoliticized civil service bureaucracies, have been eviscerated and cannibalized or, in the worst case, demolished.

The president has fundamentally sought to weaken Mexico’s institutions so that they cannot constrain him, purging them of cadres he considers disloyal to him and the Fourth Transformation (4T) movement. But this also means that he cannot rely on these institutions to generate growth, mitigate the costs of the pandemic that have not dissipated, resolve social conflicts, tackle growing public insecurity, leverage Mexico’s geostrategic assets, or even secure what he most desires: to leave a legacy.

Mexico must be more plural and open to the world

And all this also contains a great paradox: for a president who from day one boasted that “the best foreign policy is domestic policy,” it is precisely the weakness of his public policies, exacerbating the internal weaknesses of the country, that have opened fronts of pressure and vulnerability abroad, particularly with respect to the United States. Just look at the numerous examples related to the inability to manage migration flows, curb fentanyl trafficking, or address issues of civil aviation, fishing, agricultural exports, or maritime preservation to grasp the impact this is having on the country and the state’s capacities.

Therefore, we Mexicans and our society must continue to push for a country that is fully democratic, plural, tolerant, liberal, balanced, just, secure, with a market economy, open to the world, with a strong, solid, effective state.

And for this reason, I want more Mexico in the world and more of the world in Mexico; a state that relies on its professional diplomatic cadres, a nation that stops navel-gazing and floating aimlessly in the international system, that finds its moral compass and geopolitical bearings in a highly fluid global environment; that leaves behind old foreign policy crutches and paradigms; that decides to contribute to global public goods; that returns to being a weight in the multilateral arena, particularly on issues such as disarmament and nuclear proliferation, which today loom as emerging threats; that has the vision to design an integrated migration policy paradigm; that rediscovers its vocation to preserve biodiversity and once again lead on global climate change issues; and that recognizes the enormous value of promoting the country abroad, whether by rebuilding agencies to attract investment, designing a true cultural and creative industries promotion strategy, or confronting the brutal degradation of the credibility and perception of the country abroad.

History shows over and over that populism and demagoguery — on the left and the right —are shortcuts that often end in disaster; they fracture and polarize societies and divide people into rival camps of intolerance. Instead of building the future, they always invoke the past, but nostalgia can neither be nor should be established as public policy.

Today in Mexico there are plenty of excuses, shouting and insults and a lack of rationality, debate and consensus. Listen, respect, tolerate, understand, converse, debate, reach consensus, build, negotiate, move forward. If someone finds those lost verbs somewhere, tell them that Mexico’s democracy is desperately looking for them.

At this turning point for the republic, I hope the president-elect recognizes this, and decides to act accordingly. We Mexicans urgently need it.

Arturo Sarukhan has had a distinguished education and career, serving as Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S. (2007-2013), and in additional advisory roles in both Mexico and the U.S. Currently based in Washington, D.C., he writes about international issues for various media outlets and is a regular opinion columnist published on Mexico News Daily.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mexico News Daily, its owner or its employees.

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She said there would be “broad consultation” before the judicial reform proposal is discussed by Congress, but was unable to stop the Mexican peso from sliding as she spoke about the plan that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) sent to Congress earlier this year.

Sheinbaum, who won the June 2 presidential election in a landslide, held a press conference late Monday afternoon after what she described as a “very emotional, historic and important meeting” with López Obrador, her political mentor since she served as environment minister in his Mexico City government in the early 2000s.

AMLO is an outspoken critic of Mexico’s judiciary, claiming that it serves Mexico’s corrupt elite rather than the majority of Mexican people.

Sheinbaum told reporters that she would announce a gender-balanced cabinet next week, that she would meet with a delegation of United States government officials on Tuesday and that she intended to accompany AMLO on trips to inspect the current government’s infrastructure projects, such as the Maya Train railroad.

But her main focus — and the topic reporters were most interested in — was the package of constitutional reform proposals the current president submitted to Congress in February.

The 61-year-old president-elect said that the proposed judicial reform as well as proposals to increase pensions for teachers and other public workers, and to prohibit the re-election of all politicians would be the first proposed constitutional changes to be considered by the new Congress.

Sheinbaum, who will take office on Oct. 1, said she expected those reforms to pass Congress “at least in the first months” after the new Congress is sworn in on Sept. 1.

She said that other reform proposals sent to Congress by AMLO would be considered at a later date.

Sheinbaum also said she would put forth two of her own constitutional reform proposals — one that would ensure that all women aged 60 to 64 receive government financial support and another that would guarantee educational scholarships for all public school students.

She said that those initiatives would be a priority as well.

“For the first time we’re going to recognize the work of Mexican women,” the president-elect said after noting that women usually do the majority of household chores.

Sheinbaum, who will be Mexico’s first female president, advocated “a very broad discussion in the entire country” before the different reform proposals are considered by Congress.

In the case of the proposed judicial reform, bar associations, university law faculties, Supreme Court justices, judges and judicial workers should participate in the debate, she said.

Sheinbaum said that people need the opportunity to truly understand Mexico’s judicial system and the proposed reform. She added that López Obrador agreed with the plan to subject his proposed reforms to debate.

Sheinbaum didn’t say whether she would accept modifications to the proposal judicial reform, but stressed that the debate will focus on the initiative as sent to Congress by the current president.

Asked about opposition parties’ positions on the proposals, Sheinbaum simply said they have the right to disagree with them.

The proposed judicial reform and separate proposals to disband a number of government autonomous agencies and make changes to Mexico’s electoral system have spooked markets since it became clear from the June 2 election results that Morena would be able to approve constitutional changes with little or no negotiation with opposition parties. Critics say that the proposals will reduce checks and balances on executive power.

Final election results indicate that Morena and its allies have a two-thirds majority in the Chamber of Deputies, allowing them to pass constitutional changes without opposition support, while they are just a few votes short of a supermajority in the Senate. Morena national president Mario Delgado has expressed confidence that gaining the support of a few opposition lawmakers to approve constitutional reforms will not be an overly difficult task.

When Morena’s leader in the lower house of Congress said last week that the ruling party would seek to hold a vote on the proposed judicial reform in September, the peso promptly took a nosedive.

Sheinbaum’s remarks on Monday had a similar effect, with the peso falling as much as 1.8% to 18.58 to the US dollar after she spoke, according to Bloomberg. The peso was trading at 18.50 to the greenback at midday Mexico City time on Tuesday, about 8% weaker than its pre-election level.

Specifically asked whether she was concerned about the volatility of the peso, the president-elect said she didn’t believe the discussion and eventual approval of the judicial reform would have a negative impact on the currency.

“The president will leave us with very good finances” and the Mexican economy is in “very good” shape, Sheinbaum said.

She declined to disclose whether she would live in the National Palace as president, as AMLO does, or whether she will follow in her predecessor’s footsteps and hold weekday morning press conferences colloquially known as mañaneras.

In other remarks, Sheinbaum committed to having “very good” relationships with state governments, a majority of which are led by Morena governors, and pledged to maintain support for the Plan Sonora renewable energy initiative.

She also said that her meeting with López Obrador would be her first “of many others” as president-elect.

“I’ve always said, it’s an honor to be with Andrés Manuel López Obrador. We’re part of this great project of transformation of our country,” Sheinbaum said.

Mexico News Daily 

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Morena will thus have to seek support from a few opposition senators in order to approve the constitutional reform proposals submitted to Congress by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in February.

López Obrador, Morena’s founder, will hand over the presidential sash to Claudia Sheinbaum on Oct. 1, exactly one month after the new Congress is sworn in.

Proportional representation seats won’t be officially allocated until August, but June 2 results announced by the National Electoral Institute (INE) on Sunday indicate that Morena and its allies, the Labor Party (PT) and the Green Party (PVEM), won 370 of 500 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 82 of 128 seats in the Senate, according to the newspaper El Economista.

A two-thirds majority is 334 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 86 seats in the Senate.

Morena’s national president, Mario Delgado, was slightly more optimistic about the rewards the Morena-PT-PVEM coalition will reap from its strong showing in the elections on the first Sunday in June.

He posted an infographic to social media that showed that the three allied parties will have 372 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 83 in the Senate.

“Thanks to all of you Plan C is a reality!” Delgado wrote above the image, referencing López Obrador’s much-touted plan to gain sufficient support for his reform proposals by winning supermajorities in Congress.

“With a qualified majority in the Chamber of Deputies and a majority in the Senate, we will deepen the transformation in order to continue building a country with wellbeing and shared prosperity,” the Morena national president added.

Delgado has expressed confidence that gaining the support of a few opposition lawmakers to approve constitutional reforms will not be an overly difficult task.

Among López Obrador’s planned reforms are ones to disband several autonomous government agencies, change Mexico’s electoral system, overhaul the pension system, incorporate the National Guard into the military and allow citizens to directly elect Supreme Court justices and other judges.

Critics say that some of the proposals will reduce checks and balances on executive power in Mexico.

Preliminary results indicating that Morena and its allies would have the numbers in Congress to approve the proposals with little or no negotiation with opposition parties caused the Mexican peso and the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV) to lose significant ground last week.

The BMV has recovered some of its losses, but the peso remains well below its pre-election level. It was trading at just above 18.30 to the US dollar at midday Mexico City time on Monday.

President-elect Sheinbaum last week sought to calm markets by announcing that Finance Minister Rogelio Ramírez de la O would remain in his position when she takes office and endorsing a set of economic commitments outlined by Ramírez de la O.

She also said there would be broad dialogue about the reform proposals, but López Obrador appears determined to get at least some of them — especially his proposed judicial reform — approved before his term as president ends.

Political makeup of Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies

As mentioned earlier, proportional representation seats — 200 in the Chamber of Deputies and 32 in the Senate — will not be officially allocated until August. Legal challenges could affect the final allocation of seats in both houses of Congress.

The governing alliance

According to the newspaper El Economista, Morena won 245 seats in the lower house of Congress, the PVEM won 77 and PT won 48. The three parties together would thus have 270 seats.

INE results show that Morena won 40.8% of the vote in the Chamber of Deputies election, the PVEM attracted 8.4% support and the PT received 5.5% of all ballots cast.

The three-party coalition known as Let’s Keep Making History thus won 54.7% of the vote. It will have more than triple the number of seats of the three-party opposition bloc.

The PVEM, which was previously an ally of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), will be the second biggest party in the Chamber of Deputies after Morena.

The opposition

Once the recently-elected lawmakers assume their positions on Sept. 1, the National Action Party (PAN) will have 68 seats in the lower house of Congress, the PRI will have 33 and the PRD will have three, according to El Economista.

Thus, the three-party alliance made up of the PAN, the PRI and the PRD will have 104 seats.

Strength and Heart for Mexico, as the coalition is called, supported Xóchitl Gálvez in the presidential election. She attracted 27.45% of the vote, well behind Sheinbaum with 59.75%.

INE results show that the PAN won 16.9% of the vote in the Chamber of Deputies election, the PRI attracted 11.1% support and the PRD received 2.4% of all ballots cast.

Thus, Strength and Heart for Mexico won 30.4% of the vote.

The Citizens Movement (MC) party won 10.9% of the vote and will have 25 seats in the lower house, according to El Economista. Its presidential election candidate, Jorge Álvarez Máynez, attracted 10.3% support on June 2.

One of the 500 members of the lower house of Congress is set to be an independent.

Deputies serve three-year terms.

Breakdown of Mexico’s Senate

The governing alliance

According to El Economista, Morena won 60 seats in the Senate, the PVEM won 14 and the PT won eight. The Morena-led coalition will thus have 82 seats in the upper house.

INE results show that Morena attracted 40.8% of the vote, the PVEM had 8.9% support and the PT received 5.5% of all ballots cast.

Thus, the Morena-led coalition won 55.2% of the vote in the Senate election, narrowly beating its result in the Chamber of Deputies election. Despite that, its percentage of seats in the Senate will be lower than in the Chamber of Deputies.

The opposition  

According to El Economista, the PAN won 22 seats in the Senate, the PRI won 16 and the PRD won two. That gives the three-party opposition bloc a total of 40 seats in the upper house.

INE results show that the PAN received 16.8% of the vote, the PRI got 10.9% and the PRD attracted 2.3% support. Combined support for the three-party alliance in the Senate election was 30%.

MC attracted 10.9% support in the Senate election and will have six senators as of Sept. 1, according to El Economista.

Senators serve six-year terms.

Mexico News Daily 

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I am excited about Mexico’s future and am hopeful and optimistic that President-elect Sheinbaum will do well in leading the nation. However, I’ve come up with a wish list for her term based on what I think are important issues for the country that she will need to address.

Be a president for all Mexicans

Make it clear with some initial gestures that you will be the president of all Mexicans.  Unfortunately, AMLO’s leadership has been characterized as accelerating the polarization in politics in Mexico. As we have seen in other countries around the world, this is not productive nor healthy for the future of the country. Demonstrate that you will take immediate steps to reduce the polarization in Mexican politics by taking into account important priorities from the opposition candidates.

Make it clear how your leadership will differ from AMLO

On day one, make it clear if and how your leadership and policies will be different than AMLO’s. One of the biggest concerns and complaints from people who disagree with AMLO’s policies is that they think you will be a “puppet of AMLO’s” and not act independently. Be specific in telling us how you will be different.

Be proactive on nearshoring

Recognize the massive opportunity that Mexico has for foreign direct investment (FDI) with the nearshoring trend and make it clear that Mexico is open for business and investment.  Understand that the investment is not guaranteed and must be earned with the trust of businesses, entrepreneurs and investors.

Don’t hold on to the “super peso”

Understand that a strong peso — although politically popular — is not necessarily a good thing for Mexico and many Mexicans. Do not link your administration’s success to the strength of the peso.

Make changes to improve security

Take serious, innovative steps towards improving the security situation in the country.  Understand that there is nothing holding back Mexico’s potential more than both the perception and unfortunate reality of violence throughout the country.

Make Mexico a leader in renewable energy

Be bold with a vision to make Mexico a world leader in solar power generation and water reuse and recycling technologies. Mexico needs to show strong leadership in these areas and every peso invested here will pay tremendous dividends to future generations of Mexicans. Inspire us with your experience and leadership in this area.

Re-engage with the global community

AMLO wrongly pulled back on participating in global leadership gatherings. Mexico’s voice and leadership on global affairs is more important than ever. Be crystal clear on the strategic importance of a strong free trade agreement in which the US, Canada and Mexico are aligned and cooperating on global trade issues, especially in regards to China.

Address infrastructure gaps

The infrastructure investments made in the southeast during AMLO’s term have been impressive. However, there are still significant infrastructure improvements needed in the north and central parts of the country to accelerate nearshoring investments. Not urgently addressing this will ultimately hurt Mexico’s ability to fully take advantage of this opportunity.

Re-think public companies

Reconsider the role of the Mexican government in areas where private enterprise can help fund and accelerate growth. The state-run companies of CFE and Pemex are unfortunate examples of what can go terribly wrong when the government attempts to run companies.  Take a hard look at what can be done to improve these businesses, consider how private investment can help, and reconsider AMLO’s recent moves to have the government involved with building airports, highways and operating Mexicana airlines, etc.

Think big and bold

Inspire confidence from everyone in the country. Surprise your critics with your ability to think and act beyond your political party. Mexico has a historic opportunity given the current geopolitical situation worldwide. It truly is Mexico’s opportunity to shine – but you have to believe it, make all Mexicans believe it and make the world believe it!

Travis Bembenek is the CEO of Mexico News Daily and has been living, working or playing in Mexico for over 27 years.

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