Why Mexican feminists are wary of Claudia Sheinbaum, the country's first female president

Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo became Mexico's first-ever woman president on June 2 in a landslide victory where she garnered almost 36 million votes. Her overwhelming victory has been lauded internationally, as she will also become the first female leader of a North American country.

At home in Mexico, however, where more than 3,000 women were murdered last year alone, feminist organizations are skeptical of the incoming president's track record on women's rights.

During her time as mayor of Mexico City, Sheinbaum oversaw harsh police crackdowns on feminist protest movements, and she and her political party, MORENA, have been accused of downplaying femicide rates in recent years.

As Sheinbaum prepares to take office on October 1, the feminist movement has been quick to point out that despite the historical significance of her election, this doesn't mean her agenda will reflect progressive feminist ideals.

Response to protests as mayor of Mexico City

One of the main critiques from feminist groups is Sheinbaum's handling of protests in the capital Mexico City during her tenure as mayor from 2018 to 2023.

In her first year she promised to "disappear the Granadero Corps," a riot police unit that has been accused of brutality.

However, she routinely turned to militarizing public spaces and deploying anti-riot police units that were rebranded under different names, including the Special Operations Commando, and the Tactical Unit of Assistance to the Population.

In 2020, 46 feminist protesters were injured in clashes with a granaderos-like unit, according to independent journalist Arturo Espinosa. Moreover, during the historic feminist protests on March 8, 2021, confrontations with authorities reportedly led to 19 more injured women.

Although there has been documentation suggesting the use of tear gas by police forces in feminist marches, Sheinbaum denied the accusations. Nonetheless, the allegations of repression have not ceased to follow the former mayor.

Lidia Ángeles García and Josué Alejandro Ramos, investigators from Guanajuato University, found that during Sheinbaum's mayorship of Mexico City, "excessive force was used by various police bodies in feminist protests."

Sheinbaum's legal persecution of feminists

Another contention that women's groups have with Sheinbaum stems from her administration's legal persecution of feminist activists and protestors.

One such event took place in November 2020, when the Mexico City Prosecutor's Office announced it was investigating 13 young feminist women. They were accused of crimes like theft, property damage, and physical harm to others.

The protesters were summoned to a hearing at the prosecutor's office on November 24, one day before the march commemorating the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

In an interview with independent news outlet Animal Político, one of the women who was investigated denied attending the protest she was accused of rioting in. "It was false because that day I was working from home!" she stated.

According to the report, the women were identified through social media after an anonymous account posted their names, personal social media profiles, and, in some cases, their home addresses. The account soon vanished and the lawyer who represented some of the women denounced that the only proof authorities had against them were these anonymous social media posts.

"Don't you think that it's too coincidental that we were requested (to go to the Prosecutor's Office) on the 24th, one day before the march?" one of the accused stated.

The hashtag #FuimosTodas (it was all of us) gained traction following the accusations, and a website was created through which people could directly write to Mayor Sheinbaum. The cases were labeled a "witch hunt", and many citizens demanded that the charges be dropped, and that authorities stop criminalizing feminism.

"Paradoxically, Claudia Sheinbaum's government is the most violent against the (feminist) movement," said a member of the Aquelarre feminist collective in conversation with García and Ramos.

Article 19, an international organization working to ensure freedom of movement and expression around the world, reported that abuses against women in Mexico are, in part, a result of a regulatory framework that includes certain criminal procedures. These conditions also enable the criminalization of the right to protest.

In spite of feminist marches being mostly peaceful, they have been wrongly labeled as violent, and provocative, according to Article 19. "These are not protests. They are provocations," Sheinbaum stated during a press conference.

Femicide numbers

Sheinbaum's political party, MORENA, which was created by her predecessor and political mentor, out-going President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has also been accused of downplaying Mexico's femicide statistics.

According to the UN Women, femicides, defined by the international body as an intentional killing with a gender-related motivation, accounts for 25% of the investigations into the killings of women and girls in Mexico.

In 2023, 848 women were confirmed to be victims of such crimes in the country. Nonetheless, police investigations into gender-based violence have oftentimes suggested suicide or reckless homicide instead of femicide, according to UN Women. Because of this, many causes of death could have been wrongly attributed when they could potentially be femicide, according to the international body.

Despite the situation in Mexico, Sheinbaum has said that cases of femicide dropped significantly during the leadership of López Obrador. "The national femicide rates have gone down more than 40%," then-candidate Sheinbaum said in April 2024 during the first presidential debate.

To substantiate her claims, Sheinbaum presented a graph from the federal Secretary of Security showing a supposed drop in femicide rates. However, the graph compares different months and not years, and is without context, according to fact checkers at Animal Politico. The image also ignores that 2021 was the year with the most femicide victims since 2015.

Using data from Mexico's Secretariat of Public Security, Animal Político reporters have determined that, when considering annual rates, the highest number of femicides registered in Mexico during four consecutive years coincides with the government of López Obrador. An increase of 29% in femicide rates was also noted from 2018 to 2023; Sheinbaum's term as mayor of Mexico City.

What's more, Ernestina Godoy, Sheinbaum's prosecutor in Mexico City, is the subject of a criminal complaint filed by an opposition politician that accuses the prosecutor of negligence in the case of Miguel Cortés, an alleged serial killer who preyed on women in Mexico City. The complaint alleges that in 2020, Godoy's office had information about alleged crimes committed by Cortés, but he wasn't arrested until 2024 after he killed his 17-year-old neighbor.

The former prosecutor has since responded, claiming that Cortés was a "difficult killer to identify."

Throughout her tenure as mayor, Sheinbaum has stated that reports of femicides, kidnappings, and violence against women were part of a malicious campaign seeking to tarnish her image.

Feminists demand gender-sensitive governance from their incoming leader

Sheinbaum's record leaves much to be desired, according to some Mexican feminist organizations.

Skepticism surrounding Sheinbaum's commitment to a feminist agenda is "justified," according to researchers Xavier Medina Vidal and Christopher Chambers-Ju from the University of Texas Arlington.

Mexican writer and feminist Alma Delia Murillo, in an open letter to Sheinbaum, called on the president-elect to lead through a gender perspective. "Because of this, I wish that having a woman president translates to equality and care in public policy, and that her strategy is based in the construction of peace and finding ways to stop a war that no other administration has dared to dismantle."

Vivir Quintana, a Mexican singer and composer of the feminist hymn Canción Sin Miedo, released a new song in which she calls for Sheinbaum's help in the fight against gender based violence.

"I hope that you go to bed without owing justice to the mothers who search for their daughters in clandestine graves." Quintana sings in Compañera Presidenta.