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full screen Mexico’s new president Claudia Sheinbaum addresses Congress. Photo: Eduardo Verdugo
Claudia Sheinbaum has taken the presidential oath before the Congress of Mexico.
She is thus historic as the country’s first female president.
It was a joyous ceremony as Sheinbaum was sworn in in front of hundreds of Mexican congressmen.
“Presidenta, presidenta,” the feminine declension of the word president in Spanish, was heard amid the cheers.
The 62-year-old Sheinbaum received 60 percent of the vote in the presidential election in June, while the nearest challenger Xóchitl Gálvez had to make do with just over 25 percent.
In her speech, she highlighted the significance of her election win for the women who have struggled to get ahead in Mexico.
– Including those who dreamed of the possibility that one day, regardless of whether we were born female or male, we could realize our dreams without our gender determining our destiny, she said.
She also promised to cap food and gas prices, increase business investment and build more housing and passenger trains.
The drug cartels, which control large parts of the country, were briefly mentioned at the end of the speech.
The new president also faces a number of other challenges, such as a weak economy, unfinished construction programs and mounting debt.