In a few days, one hundred million Mexicans will go to the polls to elect their new deputies, senators, governors, mayors, but also their new president. Claudia Sheinbaum, the former mayor of Mexico City, candidate of the ruling Morena party, is well on her way to becoming the next head of state, ahead of her main rival on the right, Xochitl Galvez. A female president will be a first in Mexico, a still macho country, where gender violence is numerous.
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With our correspondent in Mexico, Gwendolina Duval
Gender, for the first time a campaign issue. That day, in La Paz, a small popular city in the state of MexicoClaudia Sheinbaum, the Mexican expected to become the future president of the country, gives a meeting in front of feminist groups.
Angelica Ribieros impatiently awaits the arrival of the presidential candidate. “ We no longer want to be silent, we want to go out, we want to be more numerous. So we want to be part of this government, led by a woman “, she says.
“ The time has come for women »: a slogan repeatedly chanted by the two presidential candidates, Claudia Sheinbaum and Xochitl Galvez. For the first time, they are at the heart of the speeches and the campaign. A hope since Mexico continues to be eaten away by inequalities and gender violence: the country has no less than 10 feminicides per day.
“ We really want there to be a change »
“ In truth we are still afraid in the streets, people have disappeared because of delinquency, so we really hope that there have a change “, confides Maria Zaldivar, resident of the State of Mexico.
The moment is historic, even if uncertainties remain regarding the real commitment of the candidates. “ The candidacies of Claudia Sheinbaum and Xochitl Gálvez respond to the strength of the feminist movement in Mexico which has taken place over the past eight years », Indicates Raquel Guereca Torres, researcher and feminist.
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