Claudia Sheinbaum celebrates her victory in the MORENA party's internal elections to select a presidential candidate. Photo: Infobae.
Claudia Sheinbaum has won the internal elections of México’s ruling party, the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), to become the new national coordinator of the defense committees of the Fourth Transformation; a position that, almost by default, makes her the ruling party’s candidate for the upcoming 2024 presidential election.
Sheinbaum, former head of government of Mexico City, will now be the leader of the party founded by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), following her winning of the internal elections this Thursday, September 7.
“On analyzing the polls, we can declare that Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo won the highest popular preference to be coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Fourth Transformation,” announced the president of MORENA’s National Council, Alfonso Durazo, at an event in the World Trade Center of Mexico City.
Durazo noted that the party’s internal procedure complied “with all the rules.” Sheinbaum won the leading position in all of the five polls conducted by the party.
The results of the Commission of the Center for Statistical and Social Studies of MORENA were as follows:
- Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, 39.4%
- Marcelo Ebrard, 25.6%
- Gerardo Fernández Noroña, 12.2%
- Adán Augusto López Hernández, 10%
- Ricardo Monreal, 6.5%
- Manuel Velasco, 6.3%
Durazo called for unity in the party and, without naming names, asked the other aspirants to close ranks in favor of MORENA. Adán Augusto López Hernández, former secretary of the interior for President AMLO’s government, announced that he respects the results of the poll and congratulated his party colleague, Sheinbaum, for winning the polls. “The people made their decision, and I congratulate my colleague Claudia Sheinbaum,” he stated.
The legislator on leave, Ricardo Monreal, also announced his respect for the results, because “that is how the people chose,” adding that Claudia Sheinbaum can “count on me,” and asked Ebrard not to leave MORENA.
“The people decided that my colleague and friend Claudia Sheinbaum should lead our movement,” said Workers’ Party (PT) leader Gerardo Fernández Noroña, who joined in the congratulations for Sheinbaum. He too sent a message to Marcelo Ebrard, asking him not to break the unity of the party, but added, “whoever leaves because of ambition, are ruining [their political career].”
Manuel Velasco further stated that the process was fully transparent, adding his congratulations, “I want to express my greatest recognition to the future president of México, Claudia Sheinbaum.”
The president of MORENA, Mario Delgado, asserted that it was a historic process for the party. Only five of the six candidates took the podium, since hours before the event, the former foreign affairs secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, complained of irregularities in the process, and decided not to attend.
Brief biography of Claudia Sheinbaum
Claudia Sheinbaum was born on June 24, 1962, in Mexico City, in a family of scientists, a path she would follow by studying physics at the National Autonomous University of México (UNAM).
Claudia, daughter of Annie Pardo, PhD in Biological Sciences, National Science Award winner, and Carlos Sheinbaum, chemist and businessman, reportedly held interest in the country’s political issues from a very young age.
Her political career began at UNAM, where in 1986 she was one of the most notable student leaders of the University Student Council (CEU), a movement that arose to defend public education against privatization measures proposed by then-Rector Jorge Carpizo.
Sheinbaum became the first woman to earn a PhD in environmental engineering at UNAM. Thereafter, she traveled with her family to California, USA, where she was a postgraduate student at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. During that time, she wrote numerous scientific articles related to energy use and pollution from certain industries. After returning to México, she worked as an advisor for México’s National Commission for Energy Saving.
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In 2000, the leader of the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD), José Barberán, invited Sheinbaum to the cabinet of López Obrador, who was the head of government of Mexico City, then known as the Federal District.
López Obrador appointed Sheinbaum as the secretary of the environment of the government of Federal District. Among the most important tasks entrusted to her was the construction of the second level of the Periférico, one of the most important expressways in the capital, and the planning of the Metrobus, a public transport infrastructure that is still in operation today, which has since been expanded to several routes.
The López Obrador-Sheinbaum duo has been a constant since then. When the 2006 presidential election was stolen from AMLO by the then-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and he started a resistance movement, calling himself the “legitimate president,” Sheinbaum became the spokesperson for the sit-in that shut down the Paseo de la Reforma, the most important road in Mexico City, for weeks.
Subsequently, Sheinbaum became a member of the brigades that started the National Regeneration Movement, which finally became the MORENA political party in 2014.
In 2015, MORENA participated for the first time as a political party in the mid-term elections. Claudia Sheinbaum was elected chief of the delegation of Tlalpan, located in the south of Mexico City, where she currently lives.
On July 1, 2018, Sheinbaum became the first woman to be elected head of government of Mexico City, a position she held until mid-July this year, when she resigned in order to participate in MORENA’s internal elections to decide its presidential candidate.
(Sputnik)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/AU
