Friday morning, President Claudia Sheinbaum was in the presidential palace of Mexico during her daily morning press conference and was invited by journalists if she had spoken with President Trump about a visit to the White House.
“We talked about the way it would be pleasant to meet in person, but there is nothing formal yet,” Sheinbaum replied. “When necessary, we speak directly; But there is a dialogue. “
At a time when Trump seems to picking fights with allies around the world, and threatening enormous prices on friends and enemies, Mexico has become relatively unscathed, largely thanks to the cool head and SKILLS of its president.
His negotiation powers have earned Sheinbaum the kind of praise that the American president generally reserves for strong men and dictators, with Trump the caller A “very wonderful woman”, while the foreign press has also managed.
The Washington Post called Sheinbaum “the first Trump whisper in the world”, while The New York Times At the thought, it could be “the anti-Trump”. Bloomberg thought if the Mexican chief was “the most powerful woman in the world”.
At home, she also has Managed with heavy praise For its efforts to manage the most important bilateral relationship in Mexico and its approval notes have climbed 70% when she took office in October at more than 80% in March, according to local newspaper El Financialo.
But even if Sheinbaum was rightly praised for his efforts in the management of his pugnacious and volatile counterpart in the north of the border, there are still a number of domestic problems that could flourish his victories record.
While the Mexican chief avoided the worst of Trump's general prices, she still faces a 25% disc is Cars, steel and aluminum which are sold in the United States, which will undoubtedly hinder the Mexican economy: last month, the International Monetary Fund revised its January projection from 1.3% growth for Mexico GDP 0.3% contraction In 2025. The Mexicans would feel it, and the popularity of Sheinbaum could suffer.
And although the murders have drop Since she took office, according to state figures, security remains a critical problem in Mexico: a government survey Released last month found that more than 6 in 10 Mexicans living in cities did not feel safe.
With controlling cartels about a third From the territory of Mexico, according to the American army estimates, it is not difficult to see why. Shortly after Sheinbaum took office, Violence broke out In the city in the north of Culiacán, where gangs murdered hundreds of people, shots torn the tunes in broad daylight and explosions tore at night.
The most disturbing of all is perhaps the number of disappearances, A long -standing horror which continues Apace. During the chairmanship of Sheinbaum, more than 8,000 people disappeared, an average of 41 people per day.
Since 1962, more than 120,000 people have disappeared or disappeared, according to to official figures. Although such disappearances were once associated with the State, in particular the Secret Police of Mexico, in recent decades, tactics has become a cartels tool to exercise control by terror.
The extent of the crisis was brought to the attention of the nation in March when a group of militant researchers came across an abandoned ranch in the western state of Jalisco. Inside was a Unimaginable horror sceneThe one who recalled the Nazi concentration camps: crematorium ovens, charred carbonated human remains, bone fragments.
Perhaps the most heartbreaking of all, there were also dozens of backpacks, torn photographs, lots of clothes, hundreds of pairs of shoes. The “Mexican auschwitz”, as it was nicknamed, has become a national scandal that has raged for weeks.
But as it happens too often in Mexico, the scandal remained just that. While the media described it as an extermination center, Sheinbaum bypassed the idea during a press conference by suggesting that it was a recruitment camp. The fingers were pointed out; The Morena Party in power blocked a bill to initiate a special commission to investigate the case.
When the United Nations Committee on Applied Disappearances said last month that it would seek the question of forced disappearances in Mexico before the General Assembly within the framework of the argument that it was “systematic or widespread”, Sheinbaum The accused of being misinformed.
If it cannot fight more directly on the crisis of disappearances, it is unlikely that it retains this approval rating of 80%.
Meanwhile, next month, Sheinbaum could face the greatest test of its presidency to date, Mexico launching in a very first election allowing voters to choose the judges from the district level to the Supreme Court.
A final and deeply controversial reform pushed by his predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, weeks before leaving his duties, The election will see More than 3,000 candidates in the running for 881 roles through the judiciary.
At best, the process promises to be chaotic, with the head of the Mexican elections institute admitting that the agency is not prepared “in terms of the size of the task, how precipitated it is and the budget cuts with which it is confronted”.
At worst, the elections could be spoiled by violence and its legitimacy questioned. The last federal election of Mexico was the most violent of all time 34 murdered candidates During the campaign. With an organized crime infecting almost every corner of Mexican life, this election could also be bloody: last month, the head of the majority of the Senate admitted that some of the judicial candidates had links with criminal groups.
And even if the elections are going well, with the candidates favored by the Morena Government party likely to appear at the top, the ruling party would have control of the executive, of the government's legislative and judicial branches. This would bring Mexico back to the rule to a single party that it endured for a large part of the 20th century. This would also arouse the expectations of the quantity of Sheinbaum which should be able to accomplish, with such a unit of celebration behind it.
During a speech In January, Sheinbaum defended judicial elections as an exercise in democracy and a means of eliminating corruption. Whether true or not, it remains to be seen, but with its world star increasing, the world will look carefully.
Oscar Lopez is a Mexican author and journalist based in Mexico City working on a book on the origins of forced disappearance during the dirt in Mexico.
