Amidst widespread criminal and gender-based violence, Claudia Sheinbaum emerged as Mexico’s first female president with a resounding victory on Sunday.
Celebrating the triumph of the governing party candidate, thousands of supporters waved flags and danced to mariachi music in Mexico City’s main square.
Sheinbaum addressed the applauding crowd during his victory speech, saying, “I want to thank millions of Mexican women and men who decided to vote for us on this historic day.”
“The 61-year-old former mayor of Mexico City promised that he would not let you down.”
Claudia Sheinbaum congratulated Xochitl Galvez, her principal opponent, who had conceded.
The National Electoral Institute’s early official results show that Sheinbaum, a physicist by training, received between 58 and 60 percent of the vote.
More than thirty percentage points separated it from Galvez and around fifty percentage points separated it from the front-runner, longshot centrist Jorge Alvarez Maynez.
Even though there had been occasional violence in regions of the country threatened by extremely vicious drug gangs, voters had flocked to voting places throughout Latin America.
Thousands of troops were sent in to safeguard voters during an especially violent election that resulted in the murders of over two dozen would-be local officials.
