With only a few days away from the Mexico elections, MORENA candidate Claudia Sheinbaum still leads big in the polls, but the shadow of her predecessor, current President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), still looms over her candidacy as she was his hand-picked replacement and protegee.

Even though she has tried contrasting herself to AMLO's policies, which is evident in how they ran things through the COVID-19 pandemic, many still see Sheinbaum as a copy of her mentor as she could not seem to get out of his long shadow.

The COVID-19 example rings true to this. While AMLO refused to wear a mask throughout the pandemic to highlight that there is no mask mandate, Sheinbaum went the opposite direction and constantly wore one, stressing that people should wear a mask. Under AMLO, Mexico suffered the fifth-worst COVID-19 death toll in the world, and as Lopez Obrador's top student, Sheinbaum will be tied to her mentor's policy and not her own.

However, Reuters noted that there is some very public tension between mentor and protegee, with people close to the presidential frontrunner sharing examples of why she would not become AMLO's "puppet."

These examples often include her differing takes on key issues such as the environment and energy, security, and corruption, with Sheinbaum embracing more environment-friendly energy sources while AMLO sticks to more traditional ones.

"They have a collaborative relationship, it is not one of submission," one member of Sheinbaum's campaign team told Reuters on the condition of anonymity. "It's very unfair that they say she will be a puppet because, in the five years of governing Mexico City, she did totally different things to the president."

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Claudia Sheinbaum, Like Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, May Continue Reliance on US Gas

While she has embraced more renewable sources of energy, experts still believe she may also have Mexico rely on US natural gas, much like her mentor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Although Sheinbaum indicated she would facilitate higher domestic gas production [to ensure gas independence], we expect Mexico to continue relying on imports from the US," BMI Senior Oil and Gas Analyst Dominika Rzechorzek stated during a webinar.

"This upside remains relatively small just because of Pemex's relatively poor track record of developing gas-only projects, the continued abundance of supply from the US, existing cross-border capacity between the US and Mexico, and production costs at Pemex compared to the US," added the expert.

Mexico Elections Expected To Become the Biggest Ever

Despite the dozens of candidates already killed by election-related violence, this year's Mexico elections, happening on June 2, is still expected to become the biggest one in the country's history, with over 20,700 positions at the federal and local level up for grabs.

All eyes are still on the presidential race, though, as Claudia Sheinbaum maintains her massive lead over Xochitl Galvez. According to Al Jazeera, either of the two frontrunners may become the first female president in Mexican history.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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