Mayor of Mexico City: ‘No need to change direction’

It’s been a terrible week for Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum: just as the capital was controlling one of the world’s worst Covid-19 outbreaks, a the overpass of the subway collapsed in early May, killing 26 of them.

Then, a month later, the opposition seized more than half of the city’s municipalities in the midterm elections, including Tlalpan, where Sheinbaum was mayor from 2015 until the end of 2017. The defeat in the capital dealt a severe blow to one of the largest countries on the left. bastions.

But Sheinbaum, 59, remains inexorable. “There’s no need to change direction,” he told the Financial Times in an interview. “The president is very clear about where he’s going and we’re with him.”

Mexico City voters were key to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s victory in 2018, and national gains in the Voting on June 6 they have brought to power the ruling coalition in 17 of the 32 states of Mexico. However, left-wing domination of the capital in the quarter-century ended after losing nine of Mexico City’s 16 neighborhoods.

“We were surprised by some parts of the results; we will have to reflect on them internally,” he said.

Sheinbaum, who is widely considered Lopez Obrador’s favorite to succeed him in 2024, blamed the outcome of a “disinformation campaign” by critics opposed to the government’s quest to replace neoliberal reforms to focus on fighting inequality, grafting and putting the poor first.

He said the “terrible tragedy” of the subway, which was called an independent preliminary report indicated construction defects – had influenced the vote.

With a practiced air, Sheinbaum set aside questions about whether it could happen From Mexico first woman president and pledged to recover from the electoral defeat and regain the capital economically.

“I am just strong. I believe in my government and I believe in the transformation of my country, “he said.” Neoliberalism cannot return to Mexico; he did a lot of harm. “

As president, López Obrador has beaten business confidence with abrupt changes in regulations in the energy sector, which have triggered a flood of demands. It has canceled major and partially built investments at a new Mexico City airport and a brewery in the north of the country.

But Sheinbaum, who has a doctorate in climate engineering, has backed the president’s energy plans, which focus on fossil fuels and aims to prioritize state-run hydropower plants over solar and wind energy projects. cheaper private ones when it comes to renewables.

“We will build the largest solar plant in any city in the world,” he said, referring to plans with the federal power company to install solar panels in Mexico City’s wholesale food market this year.

With the softening of the pandemic after Mexico City got one of the the highest number of excess deaths from any city in the world, he hopes that various initiatives can be really launched. These include improving transportation connections, offering computer programming lessons to the entire community, renovating a skinny industrial neighborhood that accounts for 1% of the nation’s gross domestic product as innovation center, and dealing with a water crisis.

Sheinbaum, a scientist and leftist with a long tradition, cut his teeth politically two decades ago as Secretary of the Environment in the government of Mexico City when López Obrador was mayor of the city. He oversaw the Metrobus rapid transit project and the construction of a second floor toward an urban highway while serving the government of his city.

He highlighted resilient private investment and said his plan to make the city greener, mobile and innovative is on track.

Mexico City was named this month as the first place for foreign investment in Latin America for 2021-22 in a survey of the cities of the future of the Americas fDi Intelligence, a Financial Times company.

He found this Mexico City received 353 foreign direct investment projects, the third highest total of all locations surveyed, and converted the top ten cities in the Americas in terms of economic potential.

“It is a recognition that means the ongoing transformation in this country, in contrast to the way it is often represented. . . that we are always open to investment and economic development, ”said Sheinbaum.