Sheinbaum’s quiet revolution in Mexico

President Claudia Sheinbaum gestures to the crowd during an event marking her first 100 days in office, at the Zócalo, Mexico City's main square, Jan. 12, 2025. | Fernando Llano / AP

On Jan. 12, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, speaking to 350,000 people gathered in Mexico City’s Zócalo Plaza, outlined her government’s accomplishments and prospects. Elected with a 60% plurality on June 2, 2024, as the Morena Party candidate, Mexico’s first woman president took office on Oct. 1. Her current approval rating is 80%.

That party, founded by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), her predecessor in office, enjoys overwhelming majorities in both houses of Mexico’s Congress.

This report attempts to document the democratic and socially-responsible aspirations of her presidency and party. We note structural difficulties posing obstacles. Many U.S. progressives, it seems, are not fully informed of strengthened currents of democracy and economic justice in Mexico. Awareness may inform future solidarity efforts, especially if stirrings there come to fruition and U.S. political leaders take offense.

Sheinbaum introduced her remarks by saying, “This is the Fourth Transformation of Mexico’s public life.” That characterization is attached to AMLO’s presidential term (2018-2024); she describes her own presidency as the “second stage” (segundo piso) of the Fourth Transformation. Earlier “transformations” were: independence from Spain (1821), reforms (1855-1863) culminating in Benito Juárez’s presidency, and Mexico’s Revolution (1910-1917).

Sheinbaum spoke of women: “[T]o those who think that women have no initiative of their own, that … women do not govern because we do not have capacity or intelligence, we say that, ‘Just as we run a home, just as we are mothers and grandmothers, we also have the strength, the fortitude, the mettle and the ability to be firefighters, engineers, astronauts, doctors, lawyers, and Supreme Commanders of the Armed Forces.’”

She reported on healthcare: 12,381 new outpatient clinics have been created, and healthcare workers soon will be regularly visiting handclapped or elderly citizens in their homes. New “well-being pharmacies” (farmacias del bienestar) will be located next to “well-being banks.” The one dispenses free medications and supplies; the other disperses money provided by social agencies.

Scheinbaum claimed savings worth “23 billion pesos,” or $1.1 billion USD, achieved through “digital platforms and transparent methods” plus the requirement that suppliers offer low-price bids to be able to sell drugs and medications to the government.

She reported that the government continues “to acquire new medical equipment, hire more specialists, and broaden our care network” in support of healthcare provided by Mexico’s three big social security institutes. The one AMLO established, the Institute of Social Security for Well-Being, “will be assuming the care of 53.3 million people without social security.” With its creation, 707 hospitals and 13,966 health centers “were transferred into an organizationally decentralized network of care.”

She spoke of education: 410,000 higher education students and 4,214,000 preparatory students will receive scholarships. The families of 4,100,000 primary school students will receive financial assistance. A “new model of preparatory schools” is in the works, with 20 new ones and the expansion of 65 others.

The Rosario Castellanos National University, a multi-campus, decentralized university system established by Sheinbaum when she headed Mexico City’s government, will be adding six new campuses to accommodate 25,000 students. Units have appeared throughout Mexico, and “places have been established for 330,000 new university students to receive free education.”

Commenting on working conditions, Sheinbaum cited “a record number of formally employed workers” in 2024, “the highest average salary level in history,” “inflation under control,” and a 125% minimum wage increase since 2018.

The president also indicated reforms are on the way:

• Women’s retirement age will be reduced from 65 years of age to age 60. She explained: “They ask me, why only women … [and] we ask, who mainly takes care of children? Who takes care of the home? … Well, since now there is a woman president … we are going to recognize the work of Mexican women.”
• There are plans for “at least one million new housing units for people whose salaries are less than three minimum salaries,” with 125,000 of them being built in 2025.
• Her administration has approved constitutional reforms and amendments proposed by the AMLO government, including: democratic election of judges; recognition of public ownership of the Pemex oil company and Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission; recognition of full rights for indigenous and African-descended peoples, with funding for social infra-structure; and protection of women’s constitutional rights “of equality, lives free of violence, and equal salaries for equal work.”
• She promised that “Mexico will be a scientific power.” She mentioned resources being developed for scientific and technological advances. Mexico, she indicated, will be making electric vehicles, creating new software and applications for artificial intelligence, finding ways to extract and process lithium, and designing semi-conductors.
• She discussed farming and food sovereignty, declaring that 96,000 small farmers now have access to price guarantees, that free fertilizers are available to two million of them, and that almost half a million belong to the government’s “Sowing Life” project, an initiative of social reconstruction addressing rural poverty and environmental degradation. Her government will introduce a constitutional measure prohibiting the planting of transgenic corn in Mexico.
• She stated that public access to water is a priority for the government: “We have signed the National Agreement on the Human Right to Water and Sustainability. As a result, three billion cubic meters of water will become ‘national waters’ and more than 200,000 agricultural producers will have a claim on 50% of the water consumed.”
• She detailed plans for massive build-up of transportation networks, including railroads—with emphasis on passenger services—and highway development. She promised expansion of electricity-generation capacities. The state-owned Federal Electricity Commission will soon account for 54% of the amount generated.

The new president dealt with the problems of corruption, violent crime, and financial instability. She insisted that, “[R]esources for the well-being and development of the country will expand, thanks to…eradication of corruption.”

She is counting on improved security to materialize out of government social programs aimed at removing conditions leading to lives of crime. She promised that the National Guard will be strengthened and intelligence and investigation capabilities improved. Sheinbaum noted that, “With this strategy, malicious homicides diminished 16%, malicious wounds caused by firearms dropped 20%, and robberies with violence fell 5% between September and December 2024.”

She was optimistic about finances, reporting that Mexico’s international currency reserves of $229 billion dollars “are at a record high, that her economy is the world’s 12th largest, and that tax payments in 2024 were up 4.5% over the previous year.”

The president also discussed relations with the United States, a topic of widespread apprehension in Mexico due to the return of Donald Trump to power.

The Mexican people, she said, “are honest, hardworking and courageous … There is the example of our sisters and brothers in the United States who this year sent close to $65 billion USD to their families. They contribute to Mexico’s economy, but … [they also] contribute more to the U.S. economy, because what they send to Mexico is only 20% of what they leave there in consumption, savings, and taxes.”

Citing “relations of respect” between AMLO and Trump, she mentioned cooperation around the creation of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on free trade (USMCA). It allows for “substitution of imports and creation of jobs in the three countries” and represents “the only option” in dealing with economic competition from Asian countries, she said, but Trump’s threat of fresh tariffs on both Mexico and Canada put the USMCA’s future in question.

Still, Sheinbaum emphasized, “We are the principal commercial partner of the United States.” Mutual economic dependence shows as Mexico sends 80% of its exports to the United States while the latter delivers 16% of its own exports to Mexico.

Despite the overall optimistic tone of her report, however, all is not golden, for Mexico. Michoacan journalist and academician Eduardo Nava Hernández sees a “complex scenario derived from structural problems (poverty, inequality, lagging production, corruption, financial and technological dependency).” He points to “public debt … that is 49% of the GDP and a fiscal deficit … that is the highest in almost 40 years …[These] pose a great obstacle to making public spending an effective lever of the accumulation process.”

Humberto Castro, writing for Labor Informer (Informador Obrero), reports that Mexico’s public debt increased from 10.55 billion pesos in 2018 to 17.04 billion pesos at the end of AMLO’s presidency. The “economic system [was then] in crisis … [and] criminal groups were empowered and growing.” Paying off on fiscal deficit means funds are lacking “to cover expenses for the year 2025.” And, “the profits of the multi-millionaires are not touched; there’s no fiscal reform that affects their enormous fortunes.”

Nevertheless, despite reminders of harsh realities, the decisive fact is that, indeed, new winds of change and rescue are now blowing in Mexico.

Addressing the huge crowd on Jan. 12, Sheinbaum promised, “We will not return to the neoliberal model; we will not return to the regime of corruption and privileges, we will not let the decadence of the past return, where we governed for a few. We will continue with … the maxim ‘For the good of all, [but] first the poor.’”

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CONTRIBUTOR

W. T. Whitney Jr.

W.T. Whitney Jr. is a political journalist whose focus is on Latin America, health care, and anti-racism. A Cuba solidarity activist, he formerly worked as a pediatrician, and lives in rural Maine.