Inauguration day for Claudia Sheinbaum, first female president of Mexico

MEXICO CITY – Claudia Sheinbaum took office Tuesday as Mexico's president, the first woman to lead a country that is the United States' biggest trading partner.

Her inauguration launches a six-year term during which she will navigate Mexico's all-important relationship with its northern neighbor, with outsized influence over everything from the number of migrants who reach the U.S. border to the price of avocados in U.S. grocery stores.

But she takes the helm with one enormous uncertainty: Who will join her at the negotiating table? Kamala Harris, a woman, left-leaning like herself, who favors diplomacy? Or Donald Trump, whose populism and bluster about tariffs represent an enormous risk for Mexico?

Sheinbaum "would much prefer to be facing an amenable neighbor to the north," said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington. "Sheinbaum really comes out of a lifetime of commitment to the left in Latin America. It would be hard for her to get along with Donald Trump."

Who is Claudia Sheinbaum?

Sheinbaum's election broke barriers. The first woman to lead Mexico is also Mexico's first president of Jewish ancestry, notable in a country whose Spanish colonial roots are Catholic and millions venerate the Virgin of Guadalupe. All four of her grandparents were Jewish immigrants to Mexico, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Sheinbaum is 62, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and the former mayor of Mexico City, the country's political and cultural center with a population of more than 9 million people in a metropolitan area of more than 22 million.

She represents the political party MORENA, founded by her political mentor and predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who is beloved by the many Mexicans who benefit from his generous financial support programs, including seniors and the unemployed.

Sheinbaum won Mexico's presidential election in a landslide in June and is expected to continue López Obrador's political project.

She has enjoyed broad support in the honeymoon period between the election and inauguration day: Two-thirds of Mexicans surveyed in a recent poll by Mexico City-based Buendía y Marquez reported holding a positive opinion of Sheinbaum, and 3 in 4 of those surveyed said they expect the country will do as well or better than during the past six years.

Sheinbaum's inauguration took place in Mexico City at the nation's congressional chamber known as San Lázaro.

More: Mexico elects first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum declared winner in historic election

Election 2024: What's at stake for Mexico

Once in office, the stakes for Sheinbaum in the U.S. election couldn't be higher.

Mexico's economy depends heavily on the United States. It's underpinned in part by $475 billion in exports to the U.S. and $63 billion in remittances sent home by Mexicans working abroad, most of them in the U.S.

Mexico's gross domestic product expanded less than 2% a year over the past two years, and growth is expected to slow into next year, according to Mexico's central bank. Roughly 80% of the country's exports go to the U.S., including the medical devices, computers, TV screens and automotive components assembled in Mexican border cities and headed for U.S. factories and consumers.

Crucially, the free trade agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada is up for renegotiation in 2026, and the outcome for Mexico could differ dramatically depending on who is in the White House.

At the same time, Mexico has been engaged in a massive effort to prevent migrants from reaching the U.S. border. Sheinbaum will be under immediate pressure to keep it up, even as the rising number of migrants stuck in Mexico risks angers the Mexican public. She will be under pressure from the U.S., as well, to target the dangerous criminal organizations that traffic fentanyl and migrants to the United States.

She faces domestic challenges, too, as she's tasked with carrying out initiatives begun by López Obrador, whose political shadow is expected to loom large over her presidency.

To start, she has to implement a sweeping overhaul of Mexico's judicial system, which will see the country's local, state and federal judges elected rather than appointed. López Obrador pushed the constitutional change in the final weeks of his administration, blowing off sharp criticism by the U.S. government.

More: Easing insecurity: Claudia Sheinbaum's task for boosting Mexico’s global business appeal

Mexico's inauguration day

First lady Jill Biden was at the inauguration ceremony, along with U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

Ahead of the ceremony, Mexican police erected movable steel barriers around Mexico City's sprawling public square known as the Zócalo – the typical site of celebration and protest in the country. A billboard-sized Mexican flag waved in front of the Palacio Nacional, the national palace where Sheinbaum will govern and reside.

Posted on the barriers were letters stamped with a popular caricature of López Obrador. In handwritten notes, people thanked him.

"I'm grateful to you for the checks that you give to my parents," said one note signed José Manuel Hernandez. "We'll never tire of saying that it's an honor to be with Obrador."

This story was updated to change or add a photo or video.

Lauren Villagran can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Claudia Sheinbaum, first female president of Mexico inaugurated