Mexico Elections Tale of the Tape: Claudia Sheinbaum Vs. Xochitl Galvez

The Mexico elections are finally happening on Sunday and it is a sprint to the finish between two women. Claudia Sheinbaum and Xochitl Galvez. The two women are the likeliest to win the race, as the usually-"macho" Mexico prepares to elect its first female president.

This will be the biggest election in Mexico's history, with over 20,000 seats up for grabs, including the presidency, 128 senatorial seats, 500 congressional representative seats. and thousands of local government positions, from governor to city councilor. However, all eyes are on the top spot and the battle between Galvez and Sheinbaum.

In comparison, the two are stark opposites of one another, with Sheinbaum riding on a wave of popularity by her mentor, current President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), while Galvez is one of his biggest and loudest critics. Sheinbaum represents AMLO's MORENA Party, while Galvez represents a coalition of various opposition parties, both on the left and the right.

While Sheinbaum has been very careful to both criticize and not criticize the ever-popular AMLO, Galvez has been free to attack them both, with Galvez usually going after the president's track record regarding the Mexican drug war and saying Sheinbaum will more or less be the same.

Sheinbaum has pledged continuity of some of Lopez Obrador's policies, including increasing the minimum wage and continuing his massive infrastructure projects. However, according to Foreign Policy, it remains a question if she will just mirror her predecessor or if she will go with her own take on policies, especially regarding energy which she and her mentor often disagree on.

As for Xochitl Galvez, she is expected to deliver more s more pro-business and pro-market interests, as well as stamp down harder on crime, especially regarding the cartels, declaring that "hugs for criminals are over."

Claudia Sheinbaum vs. Xochitl Galvez on Security

The two are expected to have some very differing views on security. This is very evident in one of the debates the two leading candidates participated in.

Sheinbaum fired a shot against Galvez by bringing up the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre where the Mexican Army commanded "by a PRI president" killed hundreds of university students who were holding a rally against police protection. As NBC News pointed out, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) is one of the three parties that Galvez is running for.

Galvez, on the other hand, accused AMLO, and in part, Sheinbaum, of handing "the country to organized crime" and gave the example of AMLO meeting with María Consuelo Loera Pérez, the mother of convicted drug trafficker Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzman. Sheinbaum chose not to respond.

While Galvez is largely seen to be tougher on crime, Sheinbaum is seen to continue AMLO's "Hugs, not bullets" policy where she would continue focusing on giving more economic opportunities so Mexicans would not join the cartels.

Claudia Sheinbaum and Xochitl Galvez on Immigration

As for the issue of migration, the two candidates actually agree that Mexico should be firm with the United States when it comes to negotiating agreements to stop migration. However, they differ on how this should happen.

Sheinbaum has claimed that under AMLO, Mexico got the US to "treat it as equals" and praised her mentor. Meanwhile, Galvez said he was a hypocrite who gave in to President Donald Trump in 2019 "by agreeing to toughen immigration policies to stop the advance of migrants through Mexico without demanding that the US offer legalization to undocumented Mexican immigrants" who lived in the country.

Nevertheless, Mexico is still very much into "machismo" even if the country would elect its first female president as a culture of male chauvinism and misogyny is shown in the country's high rates of femicides and large gender disparity, according to the Associated Press.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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