Claudia Sheinbaum was inaugurated as Mexico’s first female president on Tuesday, succeeding her mentor, the left-wing populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
“It is time for change, and it is time for women,” said Sheinbaum in Mexico City after her swearing-in ceremony.
The 62-year-old thanked her charismatic predecessor, whose popularity helped her to a clear victory in June’s election.
“It was an honour to fight with you,” she told López Obrador.
A number of high-ranking diplomats and representatives were in attendance, including the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, and Jill Biden, First Lady of the United States.
Sheinbaum – the country’s first president of Jewish origin – plans to continue López Obrador’s programme, including his social spending and expansion of the railway network, while pursuing her own priorities.
However, her first task is to deal with a natural emergency. She is set to visit Acapulco in the southern state of Guerrero on Wednesday, where Hurricane John has killed dozens and left large areas under water.
Other significant issues facing the new administration include the country’s powerful drug cartels, and tensions over migration and trade with the United States, Mexico’s northern neighbour.
A former physicist and climate scientist, Sheinbaum has the backing of López Obrador’s Morena party, which controls both chambers of the Mexican congress.
She previously served as the mayor of Mexico City and contributed to two reports for the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations body for assessing environmental science relating to climate change.
