Claudia Sheinbaum
Claudia Sheinbaum became the first woman president of Mexico in October 2024. Born in Mexico City in 1962 to two scientists — her mother a biologist, her father a chemical engineer — she comes from a Jewish family of Lithuanian and Bulgarian descent, and grew up in a household of left-wing student politics. She took a doctorate in energy engineering at UNAM, spending four years at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California studying energy use in Mexican buildings, and worked as an academic for two decades. She was a contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports that shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. She entered government in 2000 as environment secretary for Mexico City under Andrés Manuel López Obrador, building the first line of the Metrobús rapid transit system and a second deck for the ring road. She was elected borough mayor of Tlalpan in 2015 and mayor of Mexico City in 2018 — the first woman elected to that post. Her mayoralty cut the homicide rate by around half, expanded the cable-car network into hillside neighbourhoods, and installed a large solar array. The collapse of an elevated Metro line in May 2021, which killed twenty-six people and was attributed to construction defects predating her, was the worst episode of it. She won the 2024 election with about sixty per cent, the largest share in Mexican democratic history. Her early presidency has focused on continuing her predecessor's welfare programmes, a contested judicial reform electing judges by popular vote, and negotiating with the United States over tariffs and migration.
- Lived: 1962 CE – ?
- Nationality: Mexican
- Roles: President of Mexico (2024-present)
