Will bustling Mexico elect a scientist as its leader? Former mayor of Mexico City and granddaughter of Jewish refugees from Bulgaria and Lithuania, Claudia Sheinbaum, 61, could make history this Sunday.
The “girl of 1968” involved in student struggles is in fact on the verge of becoming the first female president of Mexico. Buoyed by the popularity of outgoing president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who installed the left in power, she is ahead of business leader Xochitl Galvez, also 61, in the polls.
Family activism
Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, born June 24, 1962 in Mexico, was raised by parents involved in several movements, at a time when students or guerrillas wanted to shake up the “perfect dictatorship” of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), in power from 1930 to 2000.
“At home, we talked about politics morning, noon and evening,” she confided in a biographical book Claudia Sheinbaum, president. His mother, Annie Pardo, a biologist, was expelled from the university for her participation in the ’68 movement.
“Proud of my grandparents and my parents”
In the midst of these social inequalities in Mexico at the time, it was a granddaughter of European Jews who took up the slogan of the outgoing president “the poor first”, addressed among others to discriminated indigenous communities. She explained that her maternal grandmother and her “communist” paternal grandfather had left Lithuania and Bulgaria to flee “Nazi persecution”.
“I come from a Jewish family and I am proud of my grandparents and my parents,” she wrote on January 12, 2009 in the newspaper the day to express his “horror” of Israel’s bombings in Gaza, during a previous military operation, already.
An American touch
A very good student, Sheinbaum pursued, in the 1980s, a master’s degree in energy engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), with a commitment within the University Student Council (CEU) against university reform. .
Without being a leader, Sheinbaum is a diligent activist, even pregnant with her daughter Mariana born in 1988. She subsequently completed her doctorate with an academic stay in California, perfecting her English.
Entry into politics through the Mexico city hall
Claudia Sheinbaum entered politics with current president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, mayor of Mexico City between 2000 and 2006.
He entrusted him with the environment portfolio, strategic in the megacity of 9 million inhabitants. The young elected official is notably at the origin of the construction of the second floor of the “ring road” to relieve congestion on this urban highway which crosses Mexico City. Facing criticism, Sheinbaum also launched bus lanes and bike lanes.
Returning to the university in 2006, the scientist contributed to the work of the IPCC, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. Her area of expertise: climate change mitigation.
Two disasters to manage
In politics, she survived two tragedies on her march to the top. The collapse of Rebsamen college on September 19, 2017, when she was mayor of the Tlalpan district, in the south of Mexico. The tragedy killed 26 people, including 19 children. And the collapse of an airbridge as a metro passed by on May 3, 2021, which left 27 dead and 80 injured when she was this time mayor of the city.
In the first case, she affirmed that the town hall was not responsible for the irregularities committed in the construction of the building. For the second, she defended her teams and negotiated with the builders of the line – a company owned by billionaire Carlos Slim – compensation for victims while avoiding trials.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Sheinbaum tried to manage the situation scientifically, as the capital recorded the highest rate of deaths per 100,000 inhabitants (442.1) in the entire country, the fourth most affected in the world.