Mexico He goes to the elections this Sunday with two women as clear favorites to win the presidency. Claudia Sheinbaumphysicist and candidate of the left-wing ruling party, and Xochitl Galveza center-right senator with indigenous roots, are the candidates with the best chances to govern the twelfth economy in the world, with 129 million inhabitants, until 2030.
According to an average of surveys by the firm Oraculus, Sheinbaum61 years old and of Jewish origin, leads Galvez by 17 percentage points boosted by the popularity of the president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, his political godfather. In a distant third place is the centrist Jorge Álvarez Máynez, 38-year-old former deputy.
Elections in Mexico: what is defined at the polls this Sunday
The polls, to which some 100 million voters in this country with three time zones are summoned, will open at 8 a.m. local time (11 a.m. in Argentina) in Quintana Roo (southeast) and part of the border with the United States, and then in other states.
Both candidates committed to maintaining the social aid of the current government. Confident in the “hidden vote”, Galvez61, assures that the die has not yet been cast and that this Sunday “a false idol with feet of clay is going to fall,” in reference to the popular Lopez Obrador.
Galveza successful businesswoman in the technology sector who focused her campaign on denouncing the president’s “failed” security policy, baptized “Hugs, not bullets” because it seeks to attack the causes of violence, believes that part of the hidden vote will come from areas hit by the powerful cartels.
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Mexico’s main candidates.
Some 450,000 people were killed in Mexico and tens of thousands have been missing since 2006, when the government sent the army to combat criminal groups.
About thirty candidates for local office have been murdered since last September, according to the NGO Data Cívica. Violent acts forced the suspension of elections in two municipalities in Chiapas (south) on Saturday.
The followers of Sheinbaum They consider that it guarantees the legacy of AMLOwhich was efficient in its management as mayor of Mexico City (2018-2023) and that she is an “inspiration” for women in this country with high rates of gender violence, where about 10 women are murdered daily, according to the UN.
During his government, 8.9 million people were lifted out of poverty, a situation in which one third of the population still lives.
“I don’t arrive alone, we all arrive!” she expressed. Sheinbaum when closing your campaign. “It is time for women and transformation (…) That means living without fear, free of violence.”
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Reuters
For its part, Galvez He reiterated that he will seek to recover control of territories controlled by crime and bring “freedom where today an authoritarian government wants to impose its decisions.”
The opposition is supported by a coalition of traditional parties PAN, PRD and PRIwho ruled for seven decades until 2000.
The challenges for Mexico
The expansion of organized crime that whoever becomes president will have to face is the main focus that all candidates point to as the main urgency when assuming power.
It will also have the challenge of maintaining social programs when the fiscal deficit has risen to 5.9% and the average growth in the last six years was barely 0.8%.
Another challenge will be the complex relationship with the United States, destination of 80% of Mexican exports, especially if donald trump returns to power.
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trump has threatened mass deportations of migrants who cross the almost 3,200 km binational border, and in 2026 the two countries and Canada must renegotiate their T-MEC trade agreement.
In these elections, the left also seeks to expand the simple majority it has in Congress to approve controversial reforms, including a judicial one, as well as retain the mayor’s office of Mexico City, its stronghold.
