Claudia Sheinbaum

Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (born 24 June 1962) is a Mexican politician, scientist, and academic who since 2024 is serving as the 66th president of Mexico, the first woman to hold the office. She previously served as Head of Government of Mexico City from 2018 to 2023. In 2024, Forbes ranked Sheinbaum as the fourth most powerful woman in the world.
A scientist by profession, Sheinbaum received her Doctor of Philosophy in energy engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She has co-authored over 100 articles and two books on energy, the environment, and sustainable development. She contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and, in 2018, was named one of BBC's 100 Women.
In 1989, Sheinbaum joined the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). From 2000 to 2006, Sheinbaum served as secretary of the environment in the Federal District under Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who was then head of government. In 2014, she left the PRD and joined López Obrador's splinter movement, Morena. She was mayor of the Tlalpan borough from 2015 to 2017. She was elected head of government of Mexico City in the 2018 election, where she ran a campaign that emphasized curbing crime and enforcing zoning laws.
In June 2023, Sheinbaum resigned from her position as head of the city government to seek Morena's presidential nomination in the 2024 election. In September 2023, she secured the party's nomination over her closest opponent, former foreign secretary Marcelo Ebrard. In June 2024, Sheinbaum won the general election in a landslide against the National Action Party (PAN) candidate Xóchitl Gálvez. She assumed office on 1 October 2024.
Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo was born on 24 June 1962 in Mexico City, within a secular Mexican Jewish family. She is the second child of chemist Carlos Sheinbaum Yoselevitz and biologist Annie Pardo Cemo.
Carlos Sheinbaum was of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. His father, Chone Juan Sheinbaum Abramovitz, had emigrated from Lithuania in 1928, becoming a jewelry merchant and a member of the Mexican Communist Party. Annie Pardo is from a Sephardi Jewish family who arrived in Mexico in 1942, fleeing from the persecution of Jews in Bulgaria during World War II. Pardo became the first Sephardic woman to be an academic at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional.
Sheinbaum's parents were actively involved in Mexican left-wing circles during the 1960s, participating in protests, workers' movements, and student uprisings.
Sheinbaum has two siblings. Her older brother Julio is a physicist and physical oceanography researcher at CICESE. Her younger sister Adriana is a teacher who lives in the United States and is married to film director Rodrigo García Barcha.
Sheinbaum earned an undergraduate degree in physics at UNAM in 1989, a master's degree in 1994, and a Ph.D. in energy engineering in 1995.
Sheinbaum completed the work for her Ph.D. thesis between 1991 and 1994 at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. While working for the laboratory, she analyzed energy use in the Mexican transportation sector and published studies on the trends in Mexican building energy use.
In 1995, Sheinbaum joined the faculty of the Institute of Engineering at UNAM. In 1999, she received the prize for being the best UNAM young researcher in engineering and technological innovation.
In 2006, Sheinbaum returned to UNAM after a period in government and began publishing articles in scientific journals.
In 2007, Sheinbaum contributed to the "Industry" chapter of the WG3 (Mitigation) report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 4AR and, in 2013, served as a lead author for the chapter in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report.
During her time as a student at UNAM, Sheinbaum was a member of the University Student Council (Consejo Estudiantil Universitario), a group of students that would become the founding youth movement of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
Sheinbaum served as the secretary of the environment of the Federal District from 5 December 2000 to 15 May 2006, appointed by Head of Government of the Federal District Andrés Manuel López Obrador. During her term, she was responsible for constructing an electronic vehicle registration center for Mexico City. She also oversaw the introduction of the Metrobús, a bus rapid transit system with dedicated lanes, and the construction of the second story of Mexico City's ring road, Anillo Periférico.
López Obrador included Sheinbaum in his proposed cabinet for the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources as part of his campaign for the 2012 presidential election. In 2014, she joined López Obrador's splinter movement, the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), which broke away from the mainstream left-wing party, the Party of the Democratic Revolution.
In the 2015 Federal District local elections, Sheinbaum was nominated by the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) for the mayorship of Tlalpan. She campaigned on a platform focused on improving public services and public spaces, reducing corruption, and implementing social programs for women and young adults. She won with 29.48% of the vote, flipping the borough from the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), which had governed the borough since 2000.
On 5 December 2017, Sheinbaum resigned to run for Head of Government of Mexico City as a candidate for the Juntos Haremos Historia coalition (lit. 'Together We Will Make History'), composed of Morena, the Labor Party (PT), and the Social Encounter Party (PES).
On 29 April 2016, city staff were ordered to demolish a wall that had been built illegally adjacent to a chapel (Capilla del Señor de los Trabajos) in Tlalpan's Cultura Maya neighborhood. The workers instructed to demolish the wall also destroyed part of the chapel's structure, including its sheet metal roof, and removed religious images. Juan Guillermo Blandón Pérez, the parish priest, alleged that Sheinbaum was responsible for demolishing the chapel and claimed that it was carried out without prior notification.
Days after the chapel's demolition, borough authorities acknowledged their error. Sheinbaum met with church representatives and proposed dividing the property in half to build a new chapel and a community art center.
The Colegio Enrique Rébsamen, a private school in Tlalpan, collapsed during the 2017 Puebla earthquake, killing 19 children and seven adults. In September 2016, the city's Institute for Administrative Verification had ruled that the school's building infringed zoning regulations and was built higher than was allowed and that the owner, Mónica García Villegas, had presented falsified documents. Sheinbaum faced criticism for not providing a complete account of the permits for the school's land use, construction, and operation. Enrique Fuentes, a lawyer representing the deceased children's parents, stated that the mayor had an obligation to take action but had failed to do so, allowing the school to continue operating.
In August 2017, Sheinbaum participated in a poll by the National Regeneration Movement to determine the party's candidate for the head of government of Mexico City. The other contenders were Martí Batres, Mario Delgado, and Ricardo Monreal. Sheinbaum secured first place with 15.9% of the vote, beating her closest opponent, Batres, by 5.8 points. On 5 December 2017, Sheinbaum stepped down as mayor of Tlalpan to register her pre-candidacy.
At her campaign launch on 1 April 2018, Sheinbaum prioritized fighting crime, stating that she would hold regular public hearings, publish reported crime statistics, and rely on the Security Council for guidance. She committed to generating 1 million jobs during her term, maintaining the universal pension for seniors, and expanding the Mexico City Metrobús system to connect the city's outskirts with the center.
During the campaign period, Sheinbaum was accused by members of Por México al Frente of being culpable for the collapse of the Colegio Enrique Rébsamen, a private school in Tlalpan, during the 2017 Puebla earthquake.
On 1 July 2018, Sheinbaum was elected to a six-year term as the head of government of Mexico City with 47.08% of the vote, defeating six other candidates.
On 5 December 2018, Sheinbaum was inaugurated as Mexico City's head of government. She became the first elected female head of government and the first to come from a Jewish background.
Sheinbaum's administration was characterized by a strong relationship with the federal government and President López Obrador. However, she took distinct approaches to certain issues, such as managing the COVID-19 pandemic, where her scientific background shaped the city's response to the crisis.
Sheinbaum stepped down on 16 June 2023 to contend with the internal selection process for a presidential candidate for the Morena-led coalition, Juntos Hacemos Historia. Sheinbaum recommended Martí Batres as substitute head of government, a choice later ratified by the Congress of Mexico City.
Sheinbaum addressed security concerns through four key axes: addressing root causes, which was integrated with her education policy and included initiatives like the Rosario Castellanos Institute of Higher Studies [es] and the Pilares community centers; enhancing the quality and quantity of police forces; expanding intelligence and investigative capabilities; and improving coordination between the Attorney General's Office, mayors, and the Secretariat of Security and Civilian Protection.
Her tenure witnessed the resignation and subsequent arrest warrant for Jesús Orta, former head of the Secretariat of Citizen Security, on corruption charges stemming from his time in the Federal Police; the escape of three inmates from the Sinaloa Cartel; and the femicide of Ingrid Escamilla.
In the first 52 months of her term, Mexico City saw 5,078 homicides, a figure higher than those recorded under the administrations of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Marcelo Ebrard, and Miguel Ángel Mancera. Despite this, the homicide rate was reduced from 17.9 per 100,000 people in 2018 to 8.6 in 2022.
In 2019, Sheinbaum declared a gender violence alert in Mexico City, responding directly to the outcry over violence against women. This decision was accompanied by the creation of the SOS *765 hotline and the construction of 710 kilometers of safe pathways under the slogan "Walk Free, Walk Safe," designed to ensure women's safety as they move around the city.
Sheinbaum promoted the Sí al Desarme, Sí a la Paz (lit. 'Yes to Disarmament, Yes to Peace') gun buyback program aimed at reducing the number of firearms held by civilians and thereby decreasing related crimes. The program allowed citizens to anonymously exchange their weapons, whether acquired legally or otherwise, for cash. Under her administration, the program, which cost about MX$40 million, managed to collect about 6,546 firearms, including 1,315 long guns.
Sheinbaum's administration focused on dismantling criminal organizations such as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, La Unión Tepito, and La Fuerza Anti-Unión, managing to arrest several of their members. Analysts viewed these actions as evidence of the effectiveness of the intelligence strategy led by Secretary of Citizen Safety Omar García Harfuch.
Her administration's security strategy included the gradual deployment of the National Guard in Mexico City. While some experts believed that the policy had a positive impact on crime reduction, others argued that there was insufficient evidence to determine the National Guard's effectiveness in reducing violence. They suggested that its presence might be more about preventive rhetoric than concrete outcomes.
As part of her administration's education policy, the Mi Beca para Empezar (lit. 'My Scholarship to Start') scholarship program was created for 1.2 million students from preschool to secondary education and, in 2022, was elevated to constitutional law in Mexico City. For higher education, the Rosario Castellanos Institute of Higher Studies [es] and the University of Health were established.
Community centers called pilares (lit. 'pillars') were established in marginalized neighborhoods and towns. These spaces promoted arts, sports, education, and cultural activities and were recognized with an award from UNESCO in 2021.
In June 2019, Sheinbaum announced a new six-year environmental plan to reduce air pollution by 30%, plant 15 million trees, ban single-use plastics and promote recycling, build a new waste separation plant, provide water service to every home, construct 100 kilometers of trolleybus and metrobús-only corridors, and construct and install solar panels and water heaters.
Sheinbaum introduced the Cablebús cable car system, becoming a new form of public transportation for the city. Construction on Lines 1 and 2 started in 2019, and both lines were inaugurated in 2021. Line 3 was proposed by Sheinbaum in 2021, and construction began that same year.
Sheinbaum continued the expansion of Line 12 towards the Observatorio metro station, a project initiated by the previous administration. In 2022, she started the modernization of Mexico City Metro Line 1 with a MX$37 billion investment, temporarily closing portions of the line to replace tracks, acquire new trains, and implement a new control system. The Observatorio station was also closed to transform it into a mega terminal, connecting Metro Lines 1, 12, and El Insurgente.
Sheinbaum expanded the Metrobús network by 33 kilometers across three of its lines. She also introduced electric buses to the system, making Line 3 entirely electric, and purchased low-emission vehicles for the city's Red de Transporte de Pasajeros.
The use of bicycles was promoted through the construction of 200 kilometers of bike lanes, primarily on the city's outskirts, along with six bike stations and the acquisition of 2,500 new bicycles for the Ecobici system.
Sheinbaum introduced a single mobility card for all public transportation systems.
Sheinbaum announced the construction of vehicular bridges to improve road connectivity. Three notable projects included the Cuemanco Bridge, which connected Periférico Oriente with Canal Nacional; a new junction linking Circuito Interior with Eje 6; and Las Adelitas Bridge, which connected Circuito Interior with Gran Canal.
Sheinbaum faced criticism for the management of the budget allocated to public transportation. Although she claimed that there were no cuts and that resources for the Metro were increased, budget data showed fluctuations in the allocation of funds for different transportation systems between 2018 and 2023.
Other infrastructure projects, such as the renovation of Mexico City Metro Line 1, the extension of Mexico City Metro Line 12 to Observatorio, the construction of the Mexico-Toluca Interurban Train, and Line 3 of the Cablebús, remained incomplete at the time of her resignation to seek her party's presidential nomination.
In 2019, Sheinbaum implemented a gender-neutral uniform policy for students in state-run schools, allowing them to wear uniforms of their choice regardless of gender. In 2021, Sheinbaum removed a statue of Christopher Columbus from Mexico City's Paseo de la Reforma as part of what she called a "decolonization" exercise.
Shortly after the first COVID-19 case in Mexico City was confirmed on 28 February 2020, Sheinbaum addressed the city, emphasizing that although the risk was low, the population needed to stay informed through official sources. On 19 March, Sheinbaum urged residents to stay at home to prevent the spread of infection. She also advised those with symptoms to text a hotline for guidance instead of going to hospitals to avoid overwhelming the healthcare system. On 22 March, Sheinbaum announced the closure of commercial establishments, cultural venues, sports facilities, and religious spaces.
López Obrador and Sheinbaum had differing views on using face masks: Sheinbaum encouraged Mexico City residents to wear face masks, while López Obrador frequently did not wear them in public.
Sheinbaum was nominated by the City Mayors Foundation for the World Mayor Prize in 2021 in North America for her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico.
At around 10:22 p.m. on 3 May 2021, several girders, part of the tracks, and two wagons of Line 12 of the Mexico City Metro collapsed between the Olivos and Tezonco stations. The casualties were 26 dead, 80 injured, and five missing. Line 12 of the Metro was inaugurated on 30 October 2012 by the head of government of Mexico City, Marcelo Ebrard, and the president of Mexico, Felipe Calderón.
Engineering flaws that had existed prior to the line's inauguration became worse over time, necessitating maintenance repairs over the next three years, including an unprecedented closure of the line to re-shape some sections of tracks and to replace the rails; most of these improvements were carried out during the term of Miguel Ángel Mancera as Head of Government. On 4 May 2021, Ebrard, then serving as Secretary of Foreign Affairs, said that the work was definitively delivered in July 2013, after reviews carried out for seven months, and expressed his willingness to respond and collaborate in the event of any request from the authorities.
Det Norske Veritas (DNV), a Norwegian company in charge of investigating the causes of the collapse of Metro Line 12, detected that one of the beams that collapsed already had structural failures since before the earthquake of 19 September 2017, a factor that had caused problems in the elevated section of the line that collapsed. On 28 June 2021, Sheinbaum dismissed the general director of the Mexico City Metro, Florencia Serranía Soto [es].
Some critics said Sheinbaum and other leaders should have worked harder to improve the Metro's infrastructure. Some political observers suggested that the political fallout from the disaster could harm Sheinbaum's candidacy in the 2024 presidential election. Alejo Sánchez Cano, editor of the Mexico City daily newspaper El Financiero, opined that Sheinbaum's responsibility was unavoidable, stating that after having been in office for two and a half years, she failed to maintain the Metro system.
On 12 June 2023, Sheinbaum announced that she would resign as head of government of Mexico City on 16 June to contend in the internal selection process to select a de facto presidential candidate for Juntos Hacemos Historia, a coalition encompassing Morena, the Labor Party, and the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico. Speculation regarding her nationality emerged after former president Vicente Fox referred to her as a "Bulgarian Jew". In response, Sheinbaum released her birth certificate, showing she was born in Mexico City.
The coalition's internal process consisted of five polls from 28 August to 4 September. On 6 September, Sheinbaum was declared the winner, securing 39.38% of the vote and defeating her closest opponent, former foreign secretary Marcelo Ebrard, by around 13 points. On 19 November 2023, Sheinbaum registered as the sole precandidate of Sigamos Haciendo Historia, the successor coalition to Juntos Hacemos Historia. Sheinbaum formally registered her candidacy at the National Electoral Institute (INE) on 18 February 2024.
On 1 March 2024, Sheinbaum launched her campaign at the Zócalo, outlining her proposals and emphasizing her commitment to continuing President López Obrador's Fourth Transformation policies. She pledged to pass "Plan C," a package of eighteen constitutional amendments proposed by López Obrador earlier that year, which include increasing the minimum wage above inflation, elevating social programs to constitutional law, and electing judiciary members by popular vote. She also proposed replicating her Mexico City security strategy nationwide, introducing a constitutional amendment to prevent reelection for any popularly elected position, and implementing new social programs for students from preschool to secondary education and women aged 60 to 64.
During debates and the campaign, Sheinbaum was accused by Xóchitl Gálvez, the candidate from the opposition coalition Fuerza y Corazón por México, of being responsible for the collapse of the Colegio Rébsamen during the 2017 Puebla earthquake, the Mexico City Metro overpass collapse, and the excess deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico City.
Polls consistently indicated that Sheinbaum held a substantial lead over her main opponent, Xóchitl Gálvez. During the three presidential debates, many commentators praised her calm demeanor during provocations from Gálvez.
The election took place on 2 June 2024, with Sheinbaum being projected the winner by the INE's quick count at 11:50 CST, making her the virtual president-elect. On 6 June, district tallies confirmed that Sheinbaum won a landslide victory. She received the highest number of votes ever recorded for a candidate in Mexican history, carried 31 out of 32 states, and achieved the highest vote percentage since free and fair elections began in Mexico.
Following her victory, Sheinbaum met with President López Obrador to outline the presidential transition and her legislative agenda for the early months of her administration. She detailed that her priorities included new social programs for primary school students and women aged 60 to 64, modifications to the pension system for government employees, and a ban on reelection for any popularly elected position. While Sheinbaum voiced support for López Obrador's judicial reform, she agreed to open nine discussion forums to address its most controversial aspects.
Sheinbaum rolled out her cabinet appointments in phases, beginning with the first announcements on 20 June. In early August, she met with governors and governors-elect to outline key projects for her 2025 budget. Sheinbaum also pledged to continue López Obrador's morning press conferences, known as mañaneras, at 7:00 AM CST.
After the LXVI Legislature was sworn in on 1 September, several of her campaign promises that stemmed from López Obrador's "Plan C" were either fully or partially passed by Congress. The judicial reform and the transfer of the National Guard to the Secretariat of National Defense were passed by both chambers, while the increases in the minimum wage above inflation and the elevation of certain social programs to constitutional status were approved solely by the Chamber of Deputies.
Sheinbaum was sworn in as president on 1 October 2024, becoming the first woman, as well as the first person of predominantly Jewish heritage, to hold the office. The presidential sash was handed to her by Ifigenia Martínez, the president of the Congress of the Union and a prominent figure for the Mexican left. In her address to Congress, Sheinbaum thanked her predecessor, highlighted her historic election as the first woman to the presidency, pledged responsible fiscal policies, and reassured foreign investors.
Her inauguration was attended by 105 representatives from various countries, including 16 heads of state and 23 delegates from international organizations. Notable attendees included Brazilian president Lula da Silva, Chilean president Gabriel Boric, Colombian president Gustavo Petro, former German president Christian Wulff, and US first lady Jill Biden. King Felipe VI of Spain was controversially not invited, with Sheinbaum citing his failure to respond to López Obrador's 2019 letter requesting an apology for the abuses committed during the Spanish conquest. This prompted a boycott by the Spanish government.
Sheinbaum continued her predecessor's practice of holding "mañaneras", regular press briefings in the morning.
On 2 October 2024, the anniversary of the Tlatelolco massacre, Sheinbaum issued a decree acknowledging the State's responsibility for the killings. The decree included a public apology, which was delivered by Secretary of the Interior Rosa Icela Rodríguez.
Sheinbaum announced a data-driven strategy to combat crime, focusing on improved policing, intelligence, and addressing root causes through increased social spending, mirroring her approach as Head of Government of Mexico City. She appointed Omar García Harfuch to head the Secretariat of Security and Civilian Protection's (SSCP), a role he previously held in her Mexico City cabinet, where he was credited with halving the city's homicide rate. On 31 December 2024, she published a bill that expanded the SSCP's powers, enabling greater collaboration with the Attorney General's Office and improving intelligence gathering across all levels of government.
During her first weeks in office, Sheinbaum's administration adopted a more hard-handed approach toward organized crime, marking a departure from Andrés Manuel López Obrador's "hugs, not bullets" strategy. Confrontations between government forces and organized crime increased, resulting in the capture of high-ranking cartel figures but occasionally causing accidental civilian casualties. Sheinbaum defended operations with lopsided death tolls, such as a shootout where the military remained unharmed while killing 19 cartel members, as acts of self-defense. By her first 100 days in office, the government reported the arrest of 7,720 individuals, the seizure of 66 tons of drugs, and the dismantling of 115 methamphetamine laboratories.
In response to infighting within the Sinaloa Cartel, Sheinbaum dispatched a task force composed of Mexican Army soldiers, National Guard members, and agents from the National Intelligence Center to address the violence. She also launched a nationwide gun buyback program called Sí al Desarme, Sí a la Paz (lit. 'Yes to Disarmament, Yes to Peace'), similar to her approach in Mexico City.
On 30 October 2024, Sheinbaum published a constitutional amendment reestablishing the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and Pemex as public entities, effectively reversing much of the 2013 energy reform. The amendment mandates that the CFE maintain a 54% share of electricity generation, with the remaining 46% managed by private companies under regulated conditions to prioritize public needs over profit.
Amidst the release of a Supreme Court draft opinion proposing to partially overturn the judicial reform bill passed by Andrés Manuel López Obrador in his final weeks as president, Sheinbaum asserted that the judicial branch lacked authority over constitutional amendments. In response, on 31 October 2024, she published a bill enshrining constitutional supremacy, limiting legal challenges to constitutional amendments strictly to procedural grounds.
On 20 December 2024, Sheinbaum signed a bill that dissolved autonomous bodies overseeing telecommunications, economic competition, and transparency, as part of an effort to simplify government functions. This followed an earlier bill she signed that restructured several cabinet positions to absorb the responsibilities of these entities. Among these changes, the Secretariat of the Civil Service was transformed into the Secretariat of Anticorruption and Good Governance, taking over the duties and authority of the National Institute of Transparency for Access to Information and Personal Data Protection (INAI). Three new cabinet positions were also added: the Secretariat of Women (replacing the National Institute for Women [es]), the Secretariat of Science, Humanities, Technology, and Innovation (replacing CONAHCYT), and the Digital Transformation and Telecommunications Agency.
Sheinbaum committed to further expanding Mexico's passenger rail network, publishing a constitutional amendment that restored the Mexican State's authority to use railway lines for passenger transport services. In late 2024, she inaugurated the final sections of the Tren Maya and announced plans to integrate freight services into the train's operations while extending the network toward Progreso, Yucatán. She also outlined her goal to construct approximately 3,000 kilometers of railroad, comprising the Mexico–Pachuca, Mexico–Nuevo Laredo, and Mexico–Nogales lines, to be completed in four phases.
In 2024, Sheinbaum announced a MX$33 billion investment to modernize six ports across Mexico: Ensenada, Baja California; Manzanillo, Colima; Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán; Acapulco, Guerrero; Veracruz, Veracruz; and Progreso, Yucatán.
Sheinbaum has continued her predecessor's practice of employing SEDENA's Military Engineers Corps. to build government infrastructure projects.
During the early months of her tenure, Sheinbaum introduced the Women's Wellbeing Pension (Pensión Mujeres Bienestar), providing bimonthly financial assistance to senior women aged 60 to 64, and launched the House to House Health (Salud Casa a Casa) program, offering medical care to the elderly and people with disabilities. She also renamed the Benito Juárez Scholarship (Beca Benito Juárez) to the Rita Cetina Gutiérrez Universal Scholarship (Beca Universal Rita Cetina Gutiérrez), expanding it to provide bimonthly financial aid to all families with children enrolled in the public basic educational system. On 2 December 2024, Sheinbaum elevated several social programs to constitutional law.
On 22 October 2024, Sheinbaum announced the fusion of SEGALMEX and DICONSA into Food for Wellbeing (Alimentación para el Bienestar) to support small local producers, offer quality products at affordable prices, and contribute to food self-sufficiency. With the fusion, the over 24,500 DICONSA stores, present in 90% of the municipalities of the country, will be reorganized, rehabilitated, and rebranded to Wellbeing Stores to Generate Happiness (Tiendas del Bienestar para Generar Felicidad).
In November 2024, Sheinbaum took her first trip abroad as president to attend the G20 summit. At the summit, she proposed allocating 1% of global military spending to reforestation efforts and advocated for expanding the United Nations Security Council to include seats for Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and small island nations. Sheinbaum also held bilateral meetings with U.S. president Joe Biden, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, Chinese president Xi Jinping, French president Emmanuel Macron, and the leaders of MIKTA member states.
On 12 October 2024, Sheinbaum expressed support for the two-state solution in the ongoing Israel–Palestine conflict, emphasising that recognising both Israel and Palestine was necessary for achieving peace in the Middle East. She also condemned the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, the subsequent violence against Gaza, and other acts of aggression in the region. Like her predecessor, Sheinbaum maintained a stance of neutrality, calling for a more proactive role from the United Nations.
In October 2024, diplomatic relations with the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, resumed, which had been suspended due to U.S. criticism of Mexico's judicial reforms. Sheinbaum outlined new diplomatic protocols requiring Salazar to communicate with the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs to engage with the federal government, noting that previously, the ambassador had spoken directly with members of the Mexican cabinet.
On 6 November 2024, Sheinbaum congratulated Donald Trump on his victory in the 2024 United States presidential election. Following Trump's threats of a 25% tariff on Mexican imports, she sent him a letter warning that "one tariff will follow another in response and so on, until we put our common businesses at risk." She also repeatedly raised concerns over the flow of firearms from the United States to criminal groups in Mexico, citing a U.S. Department of Justice report that found 74% of firearms used by cartels originated in the United States. On 1 February 2025, following Trump’s executive order implementing the tariffs, Sheinbaum threatened both tariff and non-tariff retaliation. Two days later, the two leaders reached an agreement to suspend the tariffs for one month, with Sheinbaum committing to deploy 10,000 National Guard troops to the border and Trump pledging to take action against weapons trafficking to Mexico. Sheinbaum has been praised for her strategy and success in handling Trump where others have struggled.
Sheinbaum is a self-described feminist, aligning her beliefs and actions with the principles of gender equality and women's rights. She advocates for the legalization of abortion, aligning her stance with broader movements aimed at promoting reproductive rights and autonomy for women. During her leadership in Mexico City, Sheinbaum implemented a gender-neutral policy regarding school uniforms in state-run schools and championed LGBT rights. In 2022, she became the first head of government of Mexico City to attend the city's gay pride march. She has also been an outspoken critic of the Spanish royal family and its ties to Spanish colonialism in Mexico; she has called for a formal apology and reparations from King Felipe VI, and did not invite him to her inauguration.
Sheinbaum has criticized the neoliberal economic policies of past presidents of Mexico, arguing that they have contributed to inequality in the country. She has promised to expand welfare under her presidency and intends to continue programs started by López Obrador, such as universal pension.
Sheinbaum has a background in environmental policy, having served as Minister of the Environment for Mexico City and worked on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which would go on to win the panel a Nobel Peace Prize. In her tenure as Minister of the Environment, she saw a marked reduction in air pollution and created community ecological reserves. She has both spoken in favor of clean energy and support of oil, praising PEMEX (the nation's state-owned oil company).
In 1986, Sheinbaum met Carlos Ímaz Gispert, who later became a prominent political figure in the PRD during his tenure at Stanford University. They married in 1987 and divorced in 2016. They have a daughter, Mariana Ímaz Sheinbaum, born in 1988. Through the marriage, Sheinbaum became the stepmother to Ímaz's son from a previous marriage, Rodrigo Ímaz, whom she raised.
In 2016, she began dating Jesús María Tarriba Unger, a financial risk analyst for the Bank of Mexico, whom she had known as a university student. In November 2023, Sheinbaum announced her marriage to Tarriba via social media. The two married in a small civil ceremony.
Sheinbaum is the author of over 100 articles and two books on energy, the environment, and sustainable development. A selection follows: