Do we like Claudia Sheinbaum?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Solid on LGBTQ+ rights and women's safety, with real marks for the gas push and a thin press-freedom record.
Born in Mexico City in 1962, Sheinbaum was the capital's mayor before she became president. That's where her LGBTQ+ story starts: in 2020 she publicly backed the city's ban on conversion therapies, saying she totally agreed and likening such practices to the Inquisition.
On people, the record leans well. As mayor she said the city was striving to guarantee LGBTQ+ rights, attended the 2022 Pride parade and ended gendered primary school uniforms. As president she signed a bill to standardise how every state investigates femicide, with a national penalty of 50 to 70 years, now heading to Congress. The reporting we read didn't show a big federal push on trans-specific rights, so that's a gap.
On the planet it's messier. In April she announced plans to tap unconventional gas deposits while steering clear of the word fracking, with a technical committee to look at less harmful methods, and she still firmly backs state oil company Pemex alongside renewables promises. On migrants, she rejected Trump's claim she'd agreed to close the border, said Mexico builds bridges, and pitched jobs programs in Central America to tackle root causes.
Press freedom is her weakest flank. Reporters Without Borders found only six of her 22 commitments showed any progress, none significant, and counts 18 journalists killed during her first two years. RSF notes she has condemned some of those killings, but says officials keep disparaging critical media. The Interior Secretary acknowledged delays and promised to speed up.
The splashiest accusation aimed at her came from Elon Musk in February, who alleged on X that she was just saying what cartel bosses tell her, after the death of cartel leader El Mencho. She called the idea absurd and said her lawyers were weighing legal action. Last year her government also went after a New York lawyer for the Guzmán brothers who accused her of acting as a PR arm for a drug trafficking group; a defamation suit was reportedly filed in Mexico, and he had called his comments truthful.
This week's mess is closer to home. She backed the electoral institute's head stepping down after local outlets alleged she favoured a contractor, which the head's statement framed as rumours and leaks. Separately, she's in a he-said-she-said with Chihuahua's governor over who let CIA agents join an April drug-lab raid, with the governor's account differing from hers, and the former state prosecutor, now charged with treason, saying through his lawyer it's politically motivated.