Claudia Sheinbaum becomes first female president of Mexico

Claudia Sheinbaum took office today as the first female president in the history of Mexico, during a ceremony held in the Congress of the Union.

During the session, Sheinbaum took the established oath and received from the hands of the president of Congress, Ifigenia Martínez, the presidential sash, previously delivered by the outgoing dignitary, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

To accompany her inauguration, leaders and other high officials from more than 100 countries and 22 international organizations are here; among them, the presidents of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel; of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, and of Chile, Gabriel Boric.

The leaders of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, and Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo, also arrived; as well as the prime ministers of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Bucharaya Hamudi Beyun, and of Belize, John Briceño, and the president of the Presidential Transitional Council of Haiti, Régine Abraham.

Also present were the vice president of the Permanent Committee of the National People’s Assembly of the People’s Republic of China, Tie Ning; the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, and the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, Natalia Kanem.

The VIP roster includes the president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, and the United States delegation, headed by Jill Biden, wife of President Joe Biden, are here.

The first woman to hold the top position in Mexico obtained a landslide victory in the elections of June 2, in which she surpassed 35.9 million votes and became the most voted candidate in the recent history of the country, with a huge advantage over her rivals.

Sheinbaum declares herself the continuator of the transformative, humanist and social justice project led by López Obrador and which, among other achievements, reduced poverty and inequality in the nation.