Mexico election: Claudia Sheinbaum set to become country’s first woman president
Claudia Sheinbaum is set to become Mexico’s first woman president after she was projected to have won the country’s election.
The ruling party candidate, 61, had between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote – an unassailable lead, a statistical sample showed, according to the National Electoral Institute, which is responsible for organising federal elections in Mexico.
Opposition candidate Xochitl Galvez, a female rival who is also 61, received 26.6%-28.6%, while Jorge Alvarez Maynez, 38, picked up 9.9%-10.8%.
Speaking outside a hotel in the capital Mexico City, Morena candidate Ms Sheinbaum said: “For the first time in the 200 years of the republic, I will become the first woman president of Mexico.”
She said her two competitors had called her and conceded she had won.
The climate scientist, who is a former Mexico City mayor, campaigned on continuing the political course set over the last six years by her mentor, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who was elected in 2018.
His popularity among the poor helped drive her triumph at the ballot box.
In her victory speech, Ms Sheinbaum thanked Mr Lopez Obrador, describing him as “a unique person who has transformed our country for the better”.
She has vowed to carry on with his policies, including a universal pension for the elderly and a programme paying youths to undertake apprenticeships.
Ms Sheinbaum said: “We will dedicate public funds to continue the president’s social programmes.”
She also said there would be a “friendly relationship” with the United States, adding “we will always defend Mexicans” in the US.
Claudia Sheinbaum is a former Mexico City mayor. Pic: AP
Ms Sheinbaum will have to balance promises to increase popular welfare policies while inheriting a large budget deficit and low economic growth.
The ruling coalition was also on track for a possible two-thirds super majority in both houses of Congress, which would
allow the coalition to pass constitutional reforms without opposition support, according to results from the electoral authority.
Mexico’s election was its biggest ever, with more than 20,000 congressional and local positions up for grabs, according to the National Electoral Institute.
It was also its bloodiest in modern history after the number of assassinated candidates reached 38 before election day.
Sunday’s vote was also marred by the killing of two people at polling stations in Puebla state.
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Opposition presidential candidate Xochitl Galvez has conceded. Pic: AP
Jorge Alvarez Maynez was set to come third in the election. Pic: AP
Ms Sheinbaum has vowed to improve security but has given few details, and analysts said organised crime groups expanded and deepened their influence during Mr Lopez Obrador’s term.
More than 185,000 people have been killed during his rule – more than during any other administration in Mexico’s modern history, although the homicide rate has been edging down.
The country’s constitution prohibits the president from being re-elected.
Ms Sheinbaum, who is Jewish, is the first woman to win a general election in the US, Mexico or Canada.
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Mexico is home to the world’s second-biggest Roman Catholic population, which for years pushed more traditional values and roles for women.
“I never imagined that one day I would vote for a woman,” said 87-year-old Edelmira Montiel, a Sheinbaum supporter in Mexico’s smallest state Tlaxcala.
“Before we couldn’t even vote, and when you could, it was to vote for the person your husband told you to vote for. Thank God that has changed and I get to live it,” she added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” after the group launched a missile attack on the country’s main international airport.
A missile fired by the group from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion Airport, causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
Israeli police officers investigate the missile crater. Pic: Reuters
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at the airport. Some international carriers have cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv for several days.
Four people were lightly wounded, paramedic service Magen David Adom said.
Air raid sirens went off across Israel and footage showed passengers yelling and rushing for cover.
The attack came hours before senior Israeli cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and as the army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in the enclave.
Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.
Iran’s defence minister later told a state TV broadcaster that if the country was attacked by the US or Israel, it would target their bases, interests and forces where necessary.
Israel’s military said several attempts to intercept the missile were unsuccessful.
Air, road and rail traffic were halted after the attack, police said, though it resumed around an hour later.
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Yemen’s Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel since its war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, and while most have been intercepted, some have penetrated the country’s missile defence systems and caused damage.
Israel has previously struck the group in Yemen in retaliation and the US and UK have also launched strikes after the Houthis began attacking international shipping, saying it was in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.
The Israeli Air Force is regarded as one of the country’s most elite units.
So, when hundreds of current and former pilots call for an end to the war in Gaza to get the hostages out, Israelis take notice.
This month, 1,200 pilots caused a storm by signing an open letter arguing the war served mainly “political and personal interests and not security ones”.
The pilots’ protest letter
Part of the letter translated
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the original letter was written by “bad apples”.
But Guy Paron, a former pilot and one of those behind the letter, said the Israeli government had failed to move to phase two of the ceasefire deal with Hamas, brokered under US President Donald Trump.
That deal called for a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of all the remaining hostages. Mr Netanyahu continues to argue that the war must continue to put pressure on Hamas.
Mr Paron said the (Israeli) government “gave up or violated a signed agreement with Hamas” and “threw it to the trash”.
“You have to finish the deal, release the hostages, even if it means stopping that war,” he argued.
It’s not the first time Israeli pilots have taken up a cause. Many of them also campaigned against Mr Netanyahu’s 2023 judicial reforms.
“In this country, 1,000 Israeli Air Force pilots carry a lot of weight,” Mr Paron added.
“The Air Force historically has been the major force and game-changer in all of Israel’s wars, including this current one. The strength of the Air Force is the public’s guarantee of security.”
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UN runs out of food aid in Gaza
Anti-government campaign spreads
Now, the open letter campaign has spread to other parts of the military.
More than 15,000 people have signed, including paratroopers, armoured corps, navy, special units, cyber and medics. The list goes on.
Dr Ofer Havakuk has served 200 days during this war as a combat doctor, mostly in Gaza, and believes the government is continuing the war to stay in power.
He has also signed an open letter supporting the pilots and accused the prime minister of putting politics first.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the authors of the original letter as ‘bad apples’. Pic: AP
He said Mr Netanyahu “wants to keep his coalition working and to keep the coalition together. For him, this is the main purpose of the war”.
A ceasefire could lead to the collapse of the prime minister’s fragile far-right coalition, which is opposed to ending the war.
Threat of dismissal
The Israeli military has threatened to dismiss those who have signed protest letters.
We met a former pilot who is still an active reservist. He didn’t want to be identified and is worried he could lose his job.
“This is a price that I’m willing to pay, although it is very big for me because I’m volunteering and, as a volunteer, I want to stay on duty for as long as I can,” he told us.
The controversy over the war and the hostages is gaining momentum inside Israel’s military.
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It is also exposing deep divisions in society at a time when there is no clear sign about how the government plans to end the war in Gaza, or when.
The renewed war in Gaza over the last year and a half followed deadly Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw around 250 taken hostage.
More than 51,000 people have been killed in Gaza during the Israeli military’s response, many of them civilians, according to the enclave’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
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