Claudia Sheinbaum is the front-runner in Mexico’s presidential race, but she is wrestling with the image that she could be a pawn of the current president.
Mr. López Obrador will be remembered for doubling the minimum wage and lifting millions out of poverty, but also for empowering the military, prioritizing fossil fuels and pushing measures that critics say could weaken Mexico’s democratic institutions.
His successor stands to inherit a long list of troubles. The state-owned oil company is buckling under debt, migration through the country has reached historic highs, violence is raging and former President Donald J. Trump is already threatening tariffs if he wins the American election.
Ms. Sheinbaum told The New York Times that she was prepared to work with whichever candidate wins the next U.S. election. Publicly, she has echoed Mr. López Obrador’s emphasis on tackling Mexico’s cartel violence and migration by addressing their root causes. In a hint of potential change, she said in a recent debate that she would seek to reform the country’s migration authority, an agency often accused of corruption.
