00:00this is apropos well she's not just survived a year of diplomatic wrangling
00:07with Donald Trump and fighting cartel violence but according to pundits has
00:11been thriving on it Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum has been assailed by
00:16selfie seeking supporters over the past month as she reports back to voters on
00:20her first year in office while she enjoys an approval rating of about 70
00:25percent she's also been criticized in some quarters over her record on crime
00:29as Celina Sykes reports on the 15th of September in Mexico City Independence Day
00:37felt like more of an event than usual for the first time in the country's
00:41history a woman delivered the traditional cry that kicked off celebrations
00:47Claudia Sheinbaum the first female president of Mexico was elected by an
00:59overwhelming majority in June 2024 popularity that has remained intact a
01:04year into office a survey in late August found that she had an approval rating of
01:0979% unprecedented for a leader in Latin America the key to this success the
01:16chamber method self-discipline perhaps from her 14 years of classical dancing a
01:22pragmatic approach almost certainly from her scientific background as a former
01:27member of the intergovernmental panel on climate change and also cautiousness
01:32qualities that have allowed her to cope with Donald Trump's unpredictable
01:36nature and get one of the lowest percentages of tariffs
01:42she's known not only how to manage North American politics but how to handle Trump
01:47himself concrete results also seen in other areas like the national poverty rate
01:54which stood at just under 30 percent in 2024 compared to 42 percent in 2018 a
02:01decrease largely driven by her predecessor mentor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who
02:07inspired Sheinbaum's policies on women's rights and minorities among other issues
02:12there have been several big changes for example the support she's given the
02:17elderly that's been the most important to us a first year full of success but
02:25there are also a lot of challenges left to tackle the fight against
02:29corruption drug trafficking and cartel violence huge complicated tasks while
02:35Trump is demanding quick results otherwise more tariffs could be coming
02:40Mexico's way in November well for more let's bring in Ernesto Castaneda director of
02:46the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies and the immigration lab at the
02:50American University in Washington Ernesto thanks so much for being with us on the
02:55program so one year in the Mexican president remains extremely popular among
03:01foreign voters more so than the five heads of states who preceded her what explains it
03:07that's right I mean without a doubt this is a historical presidency is the first time that
03:16Mexico has a female leader she is Jewish part of our religious minority and she has been
03:22very distinguished doing this job she has been very cold-headed at the same time that she's warm with
03:29the people she has shown a lot of respect to the poor to the indigenous people to women in a way
03:37that is not just part of the speeches or the discourse or performative or in electoral times
03:42but even one selected president as we can see in the images she's warm she wants to feel close to the
03:47people and she is interested in governing well governing for everybody and also keeping at the same time
03:54humble and accepting that they're gonna be mistakes make and that she's not perfect that she's not the
04:00savior of Mexico but she's a servant of the country so I think that's working really well
04:04internally and internationally another thing that I think has been super successful is as you were
04:10saying the way that she's dealing with Donald Trump she has done a master class and how to do it
04:17she has been cool-headed she was she has not been that tit-for-tat debating online or in person
04:25against the president even when he says inappropriate things but she has not seated ground publicly and
04:31she has been able to negotiate very effectively being respectful and at the same time gaining the
04:36respect of President Trump which is not an easy feat to do yeah and she famously joked that the U.S.
04:41would be renamed Mexican America back in January after Trump had talked about changing the name of
04:49the Gulf of Mexico has she changed her tone though when it comes to the U.S. president since then and
04:54is that how she has managed to gain his respect? That was one of the few exceptions when she
05:00played along and she tried to retort with a with a comic response but most of the time she has been
05:08very self-measured she hasn't played along and she has reiterated that she is there to do what's best
05:17for for Mexicans and that she's open to cooperate with the U.S. in issues that are important for both
05:23countries trade immigration the environment drug trafficking but that Mexico is a sovereign country
05:30so that plays really well with the nationalistic discourse within Mexico at the same time that is
05:36diplomatic and open to cooperation indeed on this area so it's been a very hard balance to keep but
05:42she has done it very well. She's extremely popular as we say but she has faced criticism as well over her
05:48government's efforts to combat crime also on the stance she's taken on Gaza so what kind of challenges
05:54lie ahead for her going into this second year do you think Ernesto?
05:57President Sheinbaum and Mexico in general face enormous changes the population is aging the population birth is
06:08declining or birth rates are declining so it's a time when Mexico needs immigrants and it's at the same time
06:15Mexico has played a key role in reducing the number of people that arrived to the U.S.-Mexico border and following the
06:23lines of López Manuel López Obrador the previous president Mexico has been deporting more Central Americans than the U.S.
06:31And I think part of the challenges that she and others want to do is how to make sure that some immigrants can call Mexico home
06:38that some people can get asylum and become refugees and settle in Mexico while also keeping the immigration topic in order in terms of the U.S.-Mexico border.
06:50Again a very very difficult task but she has delivered for the U.S. and that's why she has gotten a lot of support
06:55quietly from the United States. But there's many challenges. Violence is a big issue in Mexico
07:01against women but in general. Drug trafficking, using the military to fight against them from previous administrations has not worked.
07:11The previous president supposedly was going to make agreements and be more diplomatic with the drug trafficking.
07:17He didn't really change the way Mexico dealt with the drug trafficking cartels. There's obviously issues of corruption.
07:23So there are huge problems but they will face any president. Whoever it was, a man or whatever party,
07:30it will be the same challenges that are very hard to tackle. But she's been patient and she's been as intelligent as possible
07:36dealing with this. But it's something that's going to take a lot of time to fix.
07:40And she and her Canadian counterpart, they're going to be preparing to take on Washington again next year
07:45during the review of their three-way free trade deal. How important and significant a moment will that be for the Mexican economy?
07:53It's very important. Mexican economy is really, really connected to the U.S. economy and the tariffs that were proposed by President Trump
08:04would really hurt the American, the Mexican economy, the American economy too, but also the prospects of growth of Mexico,
08:12which was almost counting with a near shoring of many industries moving from China to Mexico closer to the U.S. and Canadian markets
08:22for more prosperity, for Mexico finally becoming a wealthy country, more developed.
08:28But we're seeing a lot of struggles in that area. So it's been a tight line to walk between continuing trade with China.
08:38But as we saw today, now there's also more tariffs that have increased with Mexico vis-a-vis Chinese-made woods.
08:45So it's part of the pressure that the Trump administration has put on Mexico.
08:49And it's a tight thing because the agreement had already, NAFTA had already been negotiated by the Trump administration
08:57and they had come to an agreement. And now Trump again is asking to negotiate, putting Mexico and Canada in a tough position.
09:04But it's good that Canada and Mexico are working together to have a united front.
09:08They're more likely to have a stronger position to negotiate from with the U.S. administration.
09:13And as we say, her approval ratings, they'd be the envy of most world leaders, really.
09:17But do you think she's kept a relatively low profile on the global stage?
09:22We didn't see her at the U.N. General Assembly, for example, in New York last week.
09:26That is correct. She's been very careful in accepting that she has a lot of work to do in Mexico,
09:34that she has a tough position to play in terms of diplomacy already with the United States and Canada.
09:42And she's following a little bit on the steps of López Obrador, who was also rarely at these international gatherings,
09:50something that goes against the tradition of foreign Mexican presidents, who will be part of these multilateral meetings.
09:56AMLO did not attend and she hasn't attended as much, which I think is useful at a time that a lot of the speeches at the U.N. were disastrous.
10:04They were very polemical and many people were dissatisfied with many of the speeches.
10:09So I think she was wise in not trying to show herself and not to let her ego take the best out of her and stay at home.
10:16I think in this in this U.N. meeting, that was probably the smartest thing to do.
10:20And do you think that her support among voters is going to continue domestically?
10:25She has faced some scandals within her own political circle in terms of corruption allegations.
10:34Yes, in some way, she owes her position to her predecessor, to AMLO, as we call him in Mexico.
10:42And she depends and needed the party of Morena to get elected and to have the support that she has in the control of Congress and now the courts.
10:52So the negative thing is that that has given her a lot of support, popularity and network across the country.
10:59But then she also has to respond for the corruption and the excesses and the mistakes of members of that party, which is which is a heavy thing to do.
11:09And then also, unfortunately, Mexico, in a way, Mexico used to have a one party system for many decades until 2000.
11:17And now that party is weaker, the PRI.
11:20But now the party of Schoenbaum is they they've become a one party system that dominates most areas of politics in Mexico.
11:29So that some some some critics say that there's been a democratic backsliding as as this this party now has also control of the courts, which are not an elected position.
11:41So the the opposition, the center and right wing parties are very critical of that concentration of power in her party.
11:50And just finally, before you go, not surprisingly, perhaps she's very popular with female voters, housewives in particular.
11:56What has she done to improve the lives of women over the past year?
11:59Yeah, I mean, symbolically, but I think also realistically, she has given a lot of highlighting to indigenous women, people that were invisible, that were seen as lesser than throughout Mexican history.
12:19And she has included the figures, the images of indigenous women in a lot of the official documents and signs and designs that the Mexican government is using.
12:34So that has gone a long way.
12:35And she's talking and she's showing that women are equally capable of being president of Mexico and being CEOs.
12:42I mean, she also has a background in science.
12:45So I think that goes a long way to showing that Mexican women can do as well as anybody else.
12:51And even though there's the stereotype that people in Mexico are very masculine in the cities, in the middle class, women have for a long time been treated equally as men.
13:00And she shows this.
13:02Ernesto Castaneda, thanks so much for being with us on the program this evening.
13:06Well, that's.
