Could Mexico be preparing to elect its first female president?
The most historic legacy of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador may now be paving the way for the country's first female leader.
As Reuters report, the Mayor of Mexico’s capital, Claudia Sheinbaum, a 60-year-old physicist, environmentalist and longstanding ally of Lopez Obrador has emerged as an early front-runner to be the president’s party's candidate in 2024, although experts say she is leaning more moderate than him.
Lopez Obrador, whose 2018 election ushered in a series of left-wing victories in Latin America, most recently on Sunday with the return of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil, has repeatedly stated publicly that he has no favourite but many inside his cabinet told Reuters that he would like Sheinbaum to follow him.
The headstrong president, socially conservative, has built his power base on higher welfare spending, state control of natural resources and expanding the role of the armed forces, while pillorying critics as corrupt and self-serving.
Local feminists have clashed with the president, who view him as out of touch while at the same time his government and congress have also seen record female participation in a country where 'machista' culture has long been blamed for relegating women to subordinate roles and higher levels of violence against them than in regional peers.
The Mayor of Mexico City, who points to her record of making the city safer for women and providing free day-care for children, wants to take things further, pitching her candidacy as historic for women in Mexico and beyond.
She also announced wanting to boost renewable energy output in a way that spurs industrial development, thus addressing concerns raised by manufacturers fearful they would struggle to meet emission-reduction targets under Lopez Obrador's drive to prioritize output by Mexico's fossil fuel-dependent state energy firms.
"Our country has enormous potential in renewable energy," Sheinbaum told Reuters. "It's perfectly feasible Mexico is really entering an age of renewable energy".
Her most prominent rival, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, is expected to adopt a more business-friendly approach.
Mexicans will go to the polls in July 2024 to vote for a new president, who remains in office for a six-year-term.