Mexico's presidential campaign reaches final stretch, with two women eyeing top job

FRANCE 24 English

Campaigning to be Mexico's next president reached a climax on Wednesday with two women leading the race for the first time in the violence-plagued Latin American nation. Gema Kloppe-Santamaria, Associate Professor of Latin American History and International Affairs at George Washington University and Global Fellow at the Wilson Center, speaks to FRANCE 24's Mark Owen.  Visit our website: http://www.france24.com  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/France24_en

Transcript

00:00 Mexico will elect a woman president for the first time this weekend.

00:06 The two candidates, who are both women, have ended their campaigns.

00:10 Their political fate rests on a single round of voting, which takes place on Sunday.

00:15 Our correspondent, Ian Grier, is in Mexico City.

00:17 His report starts at the final rally of candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, who's currently leading

00:22 her rival, Xochitl Galavez, by over 20 points, according to the opinion polls.

00:29 We are in the Zocalo, which is the symbolic heart of Mexico's nation and its democracy.

00:34 And it's where Claudia Sheinbaum, a 61-year-old environmental engineer for the left-wing Morena

00:40 party, is closing her campaign with the hope of becoming the first female president in

00:47 all of North America.

00:48 She's finishing on a high with a 20-point lead in the polls over her rival, Xochitl

00:54 Galavez, but it has also been a political campaign season marked by violence, with 35

01:00 candidates running for different posts murdered and drug cartels of the chief suspects.

01:06 This highlights one of the huge challenges she will face if she becomes president.

01:12 But this close of campaign is a really festive atmosphere.

01:17 So let's see how her supporters are feeling.

01:23 I'm happy and I'm here because I believe in this project.

01:26 I used to be very sceptical with politics and I wouldn't vote, but she convinced me.

01:38 She's one of us.

01:39 I mean, she knows our people.

01:42 She's humble and she's not authoritarian like the people that led this country before.

01:47 Now Claudia Schaumbaum has gained momentum with the popularity of the current president,

01:53 Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, or AMLO, who's her mentor.

01:57 We heard her promise to carry on his policies and as she says, take them to the second level.

02:03 Critics say she could be a puppet of AMLO, but she says firmly she will rule independently

02:09 if on Sunday she's elected, as her supporters are saying, as the first presidenta of Mexico.

02:17 Yoan Grillo, our correspondent there in Mexico City.

02:20 History in the making in Mexico.

02:22 Let's bring in for the analysis Gemma Clabo-Santamaria, who's associate professor of Latin American

02:26 history and international affairs at George Washington University and a global fellow

02:30 at the Wilson Center.

02:31 Gemma, thank you so much for being with us here on France 24.

02:33 We appreciate your time.

02:35 We were hearing from Yoan Grillo in Mexico City, Claudia Schaumbaum, the continuity candidate

02:40 in a sense, following the footsteps of outgoing president Obrador.

02:44 Joshua Galvez promising to get tough on drug cartels.

02:48 Give us your impressions of the two candidates.

02:51 Of course, I will begin by saying that Mexico is facing a historical moment.

02:55 As Yoan was mentioning, Mexico is going to be the first North American country to have

03:00 a female president.

03:02 This really reflects the strength of the candidates, but it also comes as a reflection of the cultural,

03:08 institutional and political changes and transformations that the country has experienced over the last

03:13 two decades.

03:14 I would say that they are both a strong candidate.

03:16 Clearly, Claudia Schaumbaum is leading the polls.

03:20 She's an entrepreneur.

03:22 She's a woman of science.

03:24 She's somebody that has a strong support from the current president, but she's her own person

03:30 as well.

03:32 She connects very much with the people.

03:35 Then you have Sochil Galvez, who comes from a very different business background that

03:42 presents a coalition, the position coalition.

03:45 I would say that both are inheriting a country that has key challenges, especially on questions

03:52 of security.

03:53 I would say that one of the great paradoxes that Mexico faces today is that it's going

03:57 to have its first female president in the midst of a crisis of violence that especially

04:03 affects women and girls in Mexico.

04:07 And clearly, it is a sign, as you were just saying, of great cultural change over the

04:11 past two decades.

04:13 Because if you stopped, I don't know, any 10 people in the street said, "What are your

04:17 impressions of Mexico?"

04:18 They would talk about, I suppose, drug crime cartels.

04:21 They might talk about a macho culture.

04:24 Has that really changed?

04:25 This is something that is really happening?

04:27 Or are these two women just kind of, I don't know, two anomalies that have come forward?

04:31 Is there genuine change happening in Mexico?

04:33 Yeah, I would point out several indicators that do tell us a different story of the country.

04:41 The country has now reached gender parity, thanks to a reform, an electoral reform that

04:49 pushed political parties to elect and put forward the candidacy of women.

04:54 Mexico also adopted feminist foreign policy.

04:57 And of course, you need to also take into account the activism of women, of feminist

05:03 movement on the ground, and also the activism of mothers of the disappeared, and mothers

05:09 of victims of violence.

05:10 So I would say you have a lot of changes in the country that are reflected politically,

05:17 socially, institutionally.

05:19 So I would say that they are not necessarily the exception.

05:23 I would say that they are rather one more indicator of how the country has transformed.

05:29 Still, there is undoubtedly a lot of issues in Mexico with patriarchal culture and with

05:36 discrimination against women.

05:38 And again, like one of those, one of the more dramatic indicators of that is the crisis

05:43 of femicides that the country is experiencing, the disappearance of girls and women, and

05:49 just overall the persistency of gender-based violence, both at the domestic and also in

05:56 the public level.

05:58 So I would say that changes have occurred, but at the same time, the country continues

06:03 to face key challenges.

06:05 So those changes are really positive and positive for women, and it's great to see it happening.

06:10 And as you point out, there's been this constant chipping away at the problems in terms of

06:15 holding women back to enable them to get pushed forward and develop and take charge of things

06:21 and try to shape matters.

06:22 And let's face it, the men have been in charge for a long time and haven't done such a great

06:25 job.

06:26 Maybe it is time for women to have a go and really sort of use a bit of feminine ingenuity

06:30 in making things happen properly.

06:33 You mentioned, though, the issues of crimes against women.

06:36 You mentioned femicide.

06:37 You mentioned domestic violence, horrific things that have been going on.

06:40 Tell us more about that.

06:41 How big are these problems in Mexico?

06:45 Yes.

06:46 So I would say, I mean, in terms of like violence, homicide levels have been decreasing over

06:52 the last years.

06:53 However, Mexico faces over 30,000 people killed every year.

06:58 I mean, these are like historical numbers.

07:00 And in terms of the killing of women, only last year, Mexico had over 3,000 women murdered

07:08 in Mexico.

07:09 All of those murders are typified as femicides.

07:13 But clearly that speaks to us about a very pressing crisis of insecurity.

07:19 There are over 100,000 people disappeared in Mexico.

07:22 I mean, there have been some debates about the numbers, but those are the numbers that

07:28 we have and that we discuss.

07:30 So disappearances, femicides, that is really like a pressing issue.

07:35 And of course, this has to do with the activities of criminal organizations, but it also has

07:41 to do with state-led violence or rather the criminal pollution of some state actors.

07:47 So I would say the dimensions of the crisis are quite significant.

07:51 In Latin America, Mexico in absolute numbers has the greatest number of killings against

07:58 women only after Brazil.

08:00 And in terms of femicide rates, it's between the fifth and sixth country with highest levels

08:05 of femicide.

08:07 So I think in the Latin American region, Mexico does face very pressing issues.

08:13 So whether come Sunday, we're talking about President Schoenbaum or President Galvez,

08:19 both women will have major problems on their hands and major issues to resolve.

08:26 And I'm wondering when you think about the extent of the influence of drug cartels, then

08:31 all the issues that you've just been outlining that women are facing, how does the new president

08:37 get to grips with that?

08:39 Because in a sense, I suppose the new president will become just another target for those

08:44 gangsters and those criminals.

08:46 Yes, I mean, the next president for sure will have to face several challenges.

08:54 And I mean, both candidates have addressed to a certain extent or have recognized that

09:01 they are inheriting a country with high levels of violence, with key challenges in terms

09:06 of the activities of cartels and other criminal groups.

09:12 I think both of them have alluded to the fact that they will continue with the participation

09:17 of the military in public security functions, something that is quite concerning, given

09:22 that several human rights organizations and international observers have pointed at how

09:27 the militarization of public security has led to human rights violations and has only

09:32 increased the number of disappeared people in the country.

09:38 Claudia Schoenbaum has clearly stated that she will continue with the militarization

09:42 of the country, even beyond public security functions, in terms of construction of public

09:47 infrastructure, migration, handling and other responsibilities.

09:51 And the case of Xochitl Galvez, she has argued that she will build a high security prison

09:58 a la Bukele.

10:00 So there is real concern on behalf of civil society organizations and human rights organizations

10:06 that both main candidates are promising to continue some of the same militarized, punitive

10:15 approaches that, to be honest, haven't yielded results in Mexico so far.

10:22 So still big problems ahead and some of their policies, it seems, represent problems in

10:27 themselves.

10:28 Do you have a sense of who will win?

10:31 Who do you think will become president?

10:34 I think it's very, very possible that Claudia Schoenbaum will be the next president of Mexico.

10:40 She's leading the polls.

10:43 She has a very safe margin that I will say most surely is positioning her to be the next

10:50 president of Mexico.

10:51 And again, regardless of who wins, we will certainly have a woman in power in just a

10:57 few days elected in Mexico.

11:00 Gemma Club, Santa Maria, thank you very much indeed for joining us here and giving us your

11:03 assessment and your analysis of the situation in Mexico.

11:07 Enlightening as it was.

11:09 And of course, as you point out, history will be made on Sunday with the first female president,

11:13 well, not just in Mexico, but in the whole of North America, which clearly is something

11:18 worth raising a glass to in terms of the thoughts of sexual equality and the advancement of

11:24 women's rights.

11:25 We, of course, wait to see how that develops.

11:27 And once again, thank you to Gemma Club, Santa Maria, of the Wilson Center and George Washington

11:34 University for joining us here for Apropos on France 24.

11:37 We take a short break, after that it's science.

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