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MEXICO CITY — Tens of thousands of Mexicans are set to gather downtown Sunday in a choreographed tribute to President Claudia Sheinbaum, who closed out her initial year in office with approval ratings north of 70%.
Apart from her personal popularity as Mexico’s first woman president, polls show strong support among poor and working-class Mexicans for her continuation of social-aid programs launched by her predecessor and mentor, ex-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum screams during the annual shout of Independence (Grito de Independencia) as part of Mexico’s Independence Day celebration on Sept. 15 in Mexico City.
(Hector Vivas / Getty Images)
Sheinbaum, who took office last Oct. 1, has embraced and expanded López Obrador’s leftist social agenda, often repeating his mantra: “For the good of all, the poor first.”
But, amid the plaudits, there is also a disconnect: Polls and interviews show deep concerns about crime, the economy and, increasingly, the defining issue of corruption — the elimination of which is a central plank of the president’s Morena movement, founded by ex-president López Obrador.
Almost three-quarters of respondents (73%) gave Sheinbaum’s government a negative rating for its handling of corruption, the poorest mark to date for its anti-corruption efforts, according to a poll last month from the newspaper El Financiero.
We are seeing the same corruption as in past governments, it’s very disappointing
— Lorena Santibañez, medical student
While crime remains Mexicans’ most pressing concern, many cite corruption as a core issue that could eventually erode trust in the administration of Sheinbaum, whose term lasts five more years.
“We are seeing the same corruption as in past governments. It’s very disappointing,” said Lorena Santibañez, 25, a medical student. “I want to give la presidenta the benefit of the doubt — it’s her first year. But I don’t have much hope.”
Almost daily headlines here highlight instances of alleged graft, nepotism and other questionable behavior within Sheinbaum’s ruling circles. Some reports have focused on relatives or close associates of the retired López Obrador, whom Sheinbaum regularly extols as a visionary and exemplar of moral integrity.
The corruption revelations tend to range from the somewhat venal — party bigwigs living on limited government salaries enjoying lavish lifestyles — to more insidious allegations of Morena officials in league with organized crime.
Making a social media splash this summer were news reports on the ritzy vacations of various Morena heavyweights, notably Andrés Manuel López Beltrán, the son of the ex-president, who serves as Morena’s party secretary.
His stay at a $400-a-night Tokyo hotel and reported $2,600 restaurant bill sparked outrage in a nation where many earn $10 a day or less. Amid the escalating reports of Morena officials enjoying the high life abroad, Sheinbaum signaled her disapproval.
“Power must be exercised with humility — that is my position and always will be,” she told reporters. “We have a responsibility with the movement we represent, and the principles that we represent.”
No allegations have touched Sheinbaum, a scientist and longtime academic known for her austere lifestyle and serious demeanor.
“We haven’t heard of any scandal about her, of corrupt relatives, or family members in public office doing business,” said José Farías, 54, a bus driver. “That has helped her remain popular, along with the fact that people view her as well-prepared, intelligent and honorable.”
Sheinbaum, who was recruited into public service by López Obrador while she was an obscure academic and he the mayor of Mexico City, is now the standard-bearer for Morena. It is a movement that, in little more than a decade, has become a juggernaut.
Morena dominates government, the judiciary and other facets of Mexican life in a way that has drawn inevitable comparisons to a previous Mexican political colossus — the Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, which ruled Mexico in authoritarian fashion for much of the 20th century.
The PRI is now greatly diminished, and Morena’s model differs from the PRI playbook of rigged elections, institutionalized graft, repression and an all-powerful president. But many of Morena’s old guard, including López Obrador, earned their stripes as PRI operatives.
“It’s very hard to explain Morena’s hegemony without acknowledging that it cannibalized a lot of what was left of the PRI,” said Carlos Bravo Regidor, a political analyst. “And a lot of what was left of the PRI was criminal governance and complicity with criminal organizations.”
Such complicity has become more problematic as the Trump administration has essentially declared war on drug cartels, designating a half-dozen Mexican crime syndicates as terrorist groups. Several recent scandals have suggested Morena politicians were in cahoots with organized crime.
Morena’s top member of the Senate, Adán Augusto López Hernández — a former interior minister, ex-governor of Tabasco state and lifelong associate of López Obrador— has publicly denied links to a mob known as La Barredora (The Sweeper). The alleged leader of La Barredora, a former security chief in Tabasco, is now imprisoned in Mexico after being arrested as a fugitive in Paraguay.
It was López Hernández who, while governor of Tabasco, appointed the alleged mob chieftain to the security post. The senator says he knew nothing.
Even the Mexican navy, ranked among the nation’s most-trusted institutions, has been implicated in a far-reaching fuel-theft scheme, with 14 suspects arrested so far. One is a nephew of the admiral who served as secretary of the navy under López Obrador. In response, Sheinbaum defended the admiral and said he helped denounce the thievery.
Repeatedly, Sheinbaum has been put in the position of declaring that no one is above the law. “We won’t cover up for anyone,” has become a presidential mantra.
Some reformers have credited Sheinbaum with confronting corruption, while others say she has been too cautious, too hesitant, to take on a problem deeply entrenched in Mexican politics.
“A lot of people inside Morena are saying, ‘Let’s push out the bad apples,’ “ noted Bravo Regidor. “But what’s rotten is the barrel, not the apples.”
Earlier this year, the president publicly pressured Morena to institute a strict anti-nepotism policy. But her plan ran into strong headwinds in a party where patronage is rampant.
Luisa María Alcalde Luján, a lawyer who presides as president of Morena, has been mocked for declaring that the party is nepotism-free. Both of her parents were prominent in the government of López Obrador, and her sister is the attorney general for Mexico City.
“It’s so false when politicians from Morena say there is no corruption,” said Miguel Angel García, 32, a salesman. “Yes, Sheinbaum is more honest. But she has a lot of work to do.”
Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report.
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Patrick J. McDonnell, Kate Linthicum
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