MEXICO CITY, Oct 2 – Claudia Sheinbaum was sworn in Tuesday as Mexico’s first woman president, inheriting a country beset by gang violence and economic uncertainty over controversial reforms passed by her powerful ruling party.
To cries of “Long live Claudia! Long live Mexico!” the 62-year-old former Mexico City mayor took the oath of office and received the presidential sash in Congress, with foreign dignitaries looking on – including US First Lady Jill Biden.
Sheinbaum told cheering lawmakers that, for the first time, “women have arrived to shape the destiny of our beautiful nation,“ where around 10 women or girls are murdered every day.
Supporters began gathering at dawn to celebrate the inauguration of the new leader of the world’s most populous Spanish-speaking country, home to 129 million people, which has had 65 male presidents since independence.
“I don’t arrive alone” but with “all the women of Mexico,“ Sheinbaum told the flag-waving crowd in the capital’s main square after undergoing an Indigenous purification ritual.
“No to racism, no to classism and no to machismo,“ she said.
Marta Ramirez arrived at five in the morning after a bus journey from the central city of Leon to join the celebrations.
A woman president “understands the people better,“ the housewife said.
One high-profile absence at the ceremony was Spanish King Felipe VI, whom Sheinbaum refused to invite, accusing him of failing to acknowledge harm caused by colonization.
In response, Spain announced it would boycott the inauguration, despite its strong economic and historic links with Mexico.
A scientist by training, Sheinbaum won a landslide victory in June elections with a vow to continue the left-wing reform agenda of outgoing leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a close ally.
