On Tuesday, October 1st, Prime Minister of Belize John Briceño witnessed a significant moment in history with the inauguration of Claudia Sheinbaum as Mexico’s first female president. Sheinbaum’s election marked an important milestone in breaking gender barriers in Mexican politics, following her prior achievement as the first elected female mayor of Mexico City in 2018.
During a media interview, Briceno remarked, “This is a historically significant inauguration for Mexico. We look forward to a continued friendly, positively productive relationship with our northern neighbor. Congratulations to the Government and People of Mexico.” This historic inauguration signifies a substantial advancement for women in politics across the Americas.
Sheinbaum is an environmental scientist and now assumes office as Mexico’s 66th president and first-time female leader. She won the election in June and now faces high expectations and significant challenges, including endemic cartel violence and a large national deficit. As the political protégé of popular outgoing president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Sheinbaum is known for being analytical, disciplined, and composed. She campaigned on a promise to continue Lopez Obrador’s complex legacy, which defies easy categorization. Supporters applaud his popular social programs to aid people experiencing poverty, while some critics accuse him of undermining the country’s budding democracy.
“For a long time, women were sidelined,” Sheinbaum said after taking the oath of office at a ceremony in Mexico City. “As children, we were told a version of history where the protagonists were men…. Now we know that presidents can be women.” She dedicated her win “to those who fought for their dreams and achieved them, and to those who did not achieve it, to those who had to keep quiet and shout alone, to the Indigenous women, the domestic workers who leave their villages to support us, to the great-grandmothers who did not learn to read and write because that was not a thing for girls, to the mothers who first gave us life and then everything else, the sisters, the aunts, the beautiful daughters.”
Sheinbaum represents a milestone as the first female president and makes history as Mexico’s first president with Jewish heritage. In a conservative country led by men for over two centuries, Sheinbaum’s victory underscores women’s progress in the political sphere. Sheinbaum’s election is also notable for her Jewish heritage. Her grandparents emigrated to Mexico from Lithuania and Bulgaria. She expresses pride in her ancestry but does not identify with any religious affiliation. Nonetheless, her ascension is remarkable given that Jews comprise less than 1% of a population overwhelmingly Catholic, one of the largest in the world. She is a climate scientist, holds a Ph.D. in energy engineering, and conducted studies at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in northern California, USA, in the early 1990s. She was part of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change team that shared a Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore in 2007.
Sheinbaum’s government will present its first budget before November 15th. This budget is expected to be highly scrutinized for clues on whether she will fulfill her commitments to reduce the fiscal deficit to 3.5% of the gross domestic product from the current 5.9%. As mandated under Mexican law, she will serve a single six-year term.
Belize and Mexico have long maintained close diplomatic ties, and several bilateral and regional agreements benefit multiple economic areas, particularly agriculture.

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