Accomplishments of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum; Refusal to Bow to Trump’s Threats – 2 Articles

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Sheinbaum’s Message of Change for Mexico − Wake-up Call in US

W. T. Whitney

On January 12, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, speaking to 350,000 people gathered in Mexico City’s Zócalo plaza, outlined her government’s accomplishments and prospects. Elected with a 60% plurality on June 2, 2024 as the Morena Party candidate, Mexico’s first woman president took office on October 1. Her approval rating is 80%

That party, founded by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), her predecessor in office, enjoys overwhelming majorities in both houses of Mexico’s Congress.

This report attempts to document the democratic and socially-responsible aspirations of her presidency and party. We note structural difficulties posing obstacles. Many U.S. progressives, it seems, are not fully informed of strengthened currents of democracy and economic justice in Mexico. Awareness may inform future solidarity efforts, especially if stirrings there come to fruition and U.S. political leaders take offense.

President Sheinbaum introduced her remarks with: “This is the Fourth Transformation of Mexico’s Public Life.” That characterization is attached to AMLO’s presidential term (2018-2024); she describes her own presidency as the “second stage” (segundo piso) of the Fourth Transformation. Earlier “transformations” were: independence from Spain (1821), reforms (1855-1863) culminating in Benito Juárez’s presidency, and Mexico’s Revolution (1910-1917).

Sheinbaum spoke of women: “[T]o those who think that women have no initiative of their own, that … women do not govern because we do not have capacity or intelligence, we say that, ‘Just as we run a home, just as we are mothers and grandmothers, we also have the strength, the fortitude, the mettle and the ability to be firefighters, engineers, astronauts, doctors, lawyers and Supreme Commanders of the Armed Forces.’”

She reported on healthcare: 12,381 new outpatient clinics have been created and healthcare workers soon will be regularly visiting handclapped or elderly citizens in their homes. New “well-being pharmacies” (farmacias del bienestar) will be located next to “well-being banks.” The one dispenses free medications and supplies; the other disperses money provided by social agencies.

Scheinbaum claimed savings worth “23 billion pesos,” or 1.1 billion U.S. dollars, achieved through “digital platforms and transparent methods” plus the requirement that suppliers offer low-price bids to be able to sell drugs and medications to the government.

She reported that, “We continue to acquire new medical equipment, hire more specialists and broaden our care network,” in support of healthcare provided by Mexico’s three big social security institutes. The one AMLO established, the Institute of Social Security for Well-Being, “will be assuming the care of 53.3 million people without social security.” With its creation, 707 hospitals and 13,966 health centers “were transferred into an organizationally decentralized network of care.”

She spoke of education: 410,000 higher education students and 4,214, 000 preparatory students will receive scholarships. The families of 4,100,000 primary school students will receive financial assistance. A “new model of preparatory schools” is in the works, with 20 new ones and the expansion of 65 others.

The Rosario Castellanos National University, a multi-campus, decentralized university system established by Sheinbaum when she headed Mexico City’s government, will be adding six new campuses to accommodate 25,000 students. Units have appeared throughout Mexico; “places have been established for 330,000 new university students to receive free education.”

Sheinbaum, commenting on working conditions, cited “a record number of formally employed workers” in 2024, “the highest average salary level in history,” “inflation under control,” and a 125% minimum wage increase since 2018

Other reforms are on the way:

• Sheinbaum announced that women’s retirement age will be reduced from 65 years of age to age 60. She explained that: “they ask me, why only women … [and] we ask, who mainly takes care of children? Who takes care of the home? … Well, since now there is a woman president … we are going to recognize the work of Mexican women.”
• Sheinbaum told of plans for “at least one million new housing units for people whose salaries are less than three minimum salaries,” with 125,000 of them being built in 2025.
• She reported on her government’s approval of constitutional reforms and amendments proposed by the AMLO government. These include: democratic election of judges; recognition of public ownership of the Pemex oil company and Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission; recognition of full rights for indigenous and African-descended peoples, with funding for social infra-structure; and protection of women’s constitutional rights “of equality, lives free of violence, and equal salaries for equal work.”
• She promised that “Mexico will be a scientific power.” She mentioned resources being developed for scientific and technological advances. Mexico, she indicated, will be making electric vehicles, creating new software and applications for artificial intelligence, finding ways to extract and process lithium, and designing semi-conductors.
• She discussed farming and food sovereignty, declaring that 96,000 small farmers now have access to price guarantees, that free fertilizers are available to two million of them, and that almost half a million belong to the government’s “Sowing Life” project, an initiative of social reconstruction addressing rural poverty and environmental degradation. Her government will introduce a constitutional measure prohibiting the planting of transgenic corn in Mexico.
• She stated that, “access to water is a priority for our government:” “We have signed the “National Agreement on the Human Right to Water and Sustainability.” As a result, three billion cubic meters of water will become “national waters” and more than 200,000 agricultural producers will have a claim on 50% of the water consumed.
• She detailed plans for massive build-up of transportation networks including railroads−with emphasis on passenger services−and highway development. She promised expansion of electricity-generation capacities. The state-owned Federal Electricity Commission will soon account for 54% of the amount generated.

The new president dealt with the problems of corruption, violent crime, and financial instability. She insisted that, “[R]esources for the well-being and development of the country will expand, thanks to republican austerity and eradication of corruption.

She is counting on improved security to materialize out of government social programs aimed at removing conditions leading to lives of crime. She promised that the National Guard will be strengthened and intelligence and investigation capabilities improved. Sheinbaum noted that, “with this strategy, malicious homicides diminished 16%, malicious wounds caused by firearms dropped 20%, and robberies with violence fell 5% between September and December 2024.”

She was optimistic about finances, reporting that Mexico’s international currency reserves of $229 billion dollars “are at a record high, that her economy is the world’s 12th largest, and that tax payments in 2024 were up 4.5% over the previous year.”

The President discussed relations with the United States. The Mexican people, she said, “are honest, hardworking and courageous … There is the example of our sisters and brothers in the United States who this year sent close to 65 billion dollars to their families. They contribute to Mexico’s economy, but … [they also] contribute more to the U.S. economy, because what they send to Mexico is only 20 percent of what they leave there in consumption, savings and taxes.”

Citing “relations of respect” between AMLO and President Trump, she mentioned cooperation as the free trade Agreement Between the United States of America, Mexico, and Canada (USMCA) was created. It allows for “substitution of imports and creation of jobs in the three countries” and represents “the only option” in dealing with economic competition from Asian countries.

Moreover, “We are the principal commercial partner of the United States.” Mutual economic dependence shows as Mexico sends 80% of its exports to the United States while the latter delivers 16% of its own exports to Mexico.

All is not golden, however. Michoacan journalist and academician Eduardo Nava Hernández sees a “complex scenario derived from structural problems (poverty, inequality, lagging production, corruption, financial and technological dependency).” He points to “public debt … that is 49% of the GDP and a fiscal deficit … that is the highest in almost 40 years …[These] pose a great obstacle to making public spending an effective lever of the accumulation process.”

Humberto Castro, writing for Labor Informer (Informador Obrero), reports that Mexico’s public debt increased from 10.55 billion pesos in 2018 to 17.04 billion pesos at the end of AMLO’s presidency. The “economic system [was then] in crisis … [and] criminal groups were empowered and growing.” Paying off on fiscal deficit means funds are lacking “to cover expenses for the year 2025.” And, “the profits of the multi-millionaires are not touched; there’s no fiscal reform that affects their enormous fortunes.”

Nevertheless, despite reminders of harsh realities, the decisive fact is that, indeed, new winds of change and rescue are blowing in Mexico now.

Addressing the huge crowd on January 12, President Sheinbaum promised, “We will not return to the neoliberal model; we will not return to the regime of corruption and privileges, we will not let the decadence of the past return, where we governed for a few. We will continue with … the maxim ‘For the good of all, [but] first the poor.’”

(W.T. Whitney Jr. is a retired pediatrician and political journalist living in Maine. Courtesy: CounterPunch, an online magazine based in the United States that covers politics in a manner its editors describe as “muckraking with a radical attitude”. It is edited by Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank.)

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Claudia Sheinbaum Launches Initiative to Bolster Mexican Sovereignty as Trump Officially Declares Cartels as Terrorists

Nick Corbishley

Few countries are more acutely aware of the dangers posed by a resurgence in US military adventurism than Mexico. As mentioned in previous posts, Mexico City is even home to a National Museum of Interventions, which I had the pleasure of visiting a few months back [1]. Today, having suffered at least ten invasions and incursions from its northern neighbour since winning independence from Spain over 200 years ago, the country is currently facing a constant stream of threats from the Trump administration of military attacks or even invasion.

While it is unlikely the US will resort to a full-on military invasion of Mexico, as it did between 1846 and 1848 when it seized over half of Mexico’s territory, the stakes are rising as the threats escalate. Yesterday, the Trump administration officially designated eight Latin American drug trafficking groups, six of them Mexican, as terrorist organisations, opening the way to more aggressive, unilateral US military action in the countries affected: Mexico, El Salvador and Venezuela.

The US’ lapdog ally, Canada, has also announced the incorporation of seven criminal organizations, including several Mexican drug cartels, onto its list of groups classified as terrorist. Earlier this week, the Canadian ambassador to Mexico was at pains to make clear the measure will be applied exclusively in Canadian territory, in respect of Mexican sovereignty.

Confirmation of Escalation

While Washington’s move hardly comes as a surprise, it nonetheless represents confirmation of further escalation. According to Trump’s executive order, it is US policy “to ensure the total elimination of these organizations’ presence in the United States and their ability to threaten the territory, safety, and security of the United States through their extraterritorial command-and-control structures.”

These are the newly designated narco-terrorist organisations:

• Tren de Aragua (Venezuela)
• Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13, El Salvador)
• Sinaloa Cartel
• Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG)
• Cárteles Unidos
• Cártel del Noreste (CDN)
• Cártel del Golfo(CDG)
• La Nueva Familia Michoacana(LNFM)

One of the first Trump administration officials to react to the announcement was Elon Musk. He posted on X: That means they are eligible for drone strikes.

As readers may recall, Musk has form when it comes to threatening the sovereignty of other nations on the American continent. In 2019, he famously tweeted “We will coup whoever we want. Deal with it!” in relation to the forced removal of Evo Morales as president of Bolivia. Morales himself partly blames the coup commercial interests in Bolivia’s lithium sector, including those of Musk’s TESLA. Now, Musk is blithely tweeting about the US military unleashing drone strikes against Mexico.

Bolstering Mexican Sovereignty

In the face of the rising threats from Washington, President Claudia Sheinbaum yesterday presented a constitutional reform project to protect the country against “foreign interference.” The reform will include amendments to articles 19 and 40 of the country’s Magna Carta, which relate to the country’s sovereignty and unofficial pretrial detention.

Sheinbaum also said her government was not consulted by the United States in its decision to include Mexican cartels on a list of global terrorist organisations while reiterating that both governments are working together to achieve peace on both sides of the border.

“There is collaboration and coordination but there is no interference or subordination,” she said during Thursday’s “Mañanera” morning press conference. “Both countries want to reduce drug consumption and trafficking, reduce the rates of violence. We both want to combat organized crime groups that carry out illegal acts in both countries. We are working very well in coordinating and collaborating in these areas, but never by violating Mexico’s sovereignty,”

The proposed amendment to Article 40 stipulates that “the people of Mexico, under no circumstances, will accept interventions, meddling or any foreign act that violates the integrity, independence and sovereignty of the nation, such as coups d’état, interference in elections or violation of territory, whether by land, sea, air or space.”

It also establishes that Mexico will not allow foreign intervention in investigations or judicial processes without the express authorisation of the Mexican State, which may be in response to recent speculation that the US judiciary is building a case against Sheinbaum’s predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, over his alleged ties with drug trafficking groups.

For its part, the amendment to Article 19 indicates that any person, national or foreign, “linked to the manufacture, distribution, marketing, transfer or illegal introduction of weapons into the national territory” will be subject to informal preventive detention and will face “the most severe penalty possible.”

As the Mexican journalist Jesús Escobar Tovar noted in his daily podcast yesterday, Sheinbaum’s recurring emphasis on defending national sovereignty is of vital importance given that “generations of Mexican leaders, from Miguel Aleman (1946-52) to Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-18), have essentially handed Mexican sovereignty, in all its different facets and at all its different levels, to the US on a plate, constantly ceding to US demands whatever they may have been”:

In its acts, the posture of the US today is provocative; It is intimidating towards our country… What is going to happen now that the drug cartels are officially considered as terrorist organisations?

If we consider the actions, declarations and expressed desires of an important faction within Trump’s political movement, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Elon Musk, a very powerful figure, the national security advisor, Mike Waltz, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, not to mention other more peripheral figures such as Peter Thiel, they have been constantly talking about invading Mexico.

They, including JD Vance, have been constantly repeating the diatribe of invading Mexico in order to eliminate the drug cartels. They are not going to eliminate anything; all they will do is create a humanitarian crisis. Why? Because it is by now well documented that whenever the United States enters another country supposedly to help it, it ends up leaving behind a total hellhole. They destroy institutions, the quality of life, and the conscience and wellbeing of local people, all in order to plunder.

The US is never going to enter another country in order to help it out in any way. It will go in to pillage. As such, all those people here in Mexico like Marko Cortes, Lily Tevez… who try to convince the Mexican people that active collaboration with the United States, or as some are calling it, a “soft invasion”, could be very positive are lying through their teeth, promoting an anti-patriotic and treasonous discourse. That’s why it is so important to set clear rules and shine a spotlight on those who intentionally seek to undermine national sovereignty.

The issue of national sovereignty is, as you may have noticed, a recurring theme in Doctor Sheinbaum’s speeches… This is because it is an issue that is at the very heart of discussions with the United States. In all dealings with the US you have to stand firm and try to prevent it from infringing your sovereignty. If you allow it to happen just once, you will never be able to get rid of them. Once they do finally leave, it will be because they have bled you dry.

Sheinbaum has so far opted for a “calculated and diplomatic” response to Trump. And so far, the strategy has paid dividends, winning her plaudits from some unlikely places. According to the Wall Street Journal, Sheinbaum “is writing the manual on how to handle Trump.” The Economist reports that her “firm demeanour” has won her “acclaim at home and abroad for how she handled her mercurial American counterpart” while CNN recently gushed at her “art of keeping a cool head with Trump.”

Until Trump hit the scene once again, most US and British media outlets were broadly hostile to Sheinbaum and her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s policies and style of governance, in particular the relatively independent course they have struck wrt foreign policy. That includes forging close diplomatic ties with the US’ least favoured nations in Latin America, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, remaining fiercely neutral on the US-Russian proxy war in Ukraine and forging closer economic ties with China.

But it’s not just the Anglo-American media that are fawning over Sheinbaum’s calmness under pressure; so, too, are some world leaders. Germany’s (almost certainly outgoing) President Olaf Scholz called her “a very smart politician” because she “has acted calmly.” Even Trump thanked Sheinbaum on Wednesday for sharing details of the anti-drug policy that her government has promoted across the lengths and breadth of country.

“It was a very interesting conversation, because we’re going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars advertising how bad drugs are so that children don’t use them, that they devour your brain, destroy your teeth, your skin, everything,” Trump said. “And I thanked her for that. You know, I make a lot of calls and I never learn anything from anybody.”

Rare praise indeed from a man like Trump. Some observers in Mexico are calling it a “carrot-or-garotte” approach, which essentially translates as “carrot-or-stick.” And they’re probably not wrong.

There are, moreover, clear limitations to what Sheinbaum can achieve if the Trump administration decides to escalate its showdown with/shakedown of its southern neighbour. Mexico’s near-total economic dependence on the US is a clear source of weakness. Thanks to 40 years of NAFTA, the country relies on its northern neighbour not only for imports of its staple foods (corn, beans, rice…) but also energy, in particular natural gas from Texas. Moreover, Over 80% of Mexico’s exports go to the US, making it acutely vulnerable to tariffs.

Remittances from Mexican migrants now provide around 3.5% of GDP and account for a whopping 5% of household income, making it an essential financial lifeline for many families across the country. To what extent Trump’s anti-immigrant policies will impact that lifeline remains to be seen, but the initial signs are not encouraging. According to one report, remittances from the US have fallen by 40% in February alone in San Cristóbal de las Casas, the municipality in Mexico that receives the most income from remittances from the US.

The Real Goal

On numerous occasions over the past year we have discussed how the US’ decision to intensify its disastrous war on drugs across Latin America has little to do with stemming the flow of drugs into the US. As Christopher Fettweis, a professor of political science at Tulane University in New Orleans, wrote in Responsible Statecraft last May, the drugs always find a way:

Those proposing the special forces “solution” to the fentanyl crisis do not appear to grasp the basic economics: supply will always find a way to high demand, and new narcotics entrepreneurs will always arise. When the Colombian cartels waned in the 1990s, one may recall, other suppliers quickly emerged in Mexico. If the current moles in Mexico are whacked, new ones will soon pop up elsewhere. Killing the middlemen of the drug trade never solves the problem.

This is particularly true when the drug in question is fentanyl, which is so powerful that both its ingredients and pills can be transported in tiny quantities and still be profitable.

“You don’t need a truck, a boat, a plane, you need human beings,” and the millions of people crossing the Mexican-US border every day make it “impossible” to control smuggling, says Steven Dudley, co-director of the InSight Crime think tank.

Nor does the intensification of the war on drugs have much to do with tackling the escalating violence being unleashed by drug cartels across Latin America. If Washington was serious about that, it would have stemmed the southward flow of US-produced guns and other weapons a long time ago. But that would hurt the profits of US arms manufacturers. And if it was serious about tackling drug addiction, it would never have let Big Pharma unleash the opium epidemic in the first place. And once it had, it would never have let the perps walk free with the daintiest of financial slaps on the wrists.

The real purpose of Washington’s war on the narco terroristas is to regain strategic dominance in a region that it has long neglected, allowing its apex strategic rival, China, not only to gain a foothold in its backyard but to begin winning the race for economic dominance, while also selling lots of US-made weapons in the process. China is already South America’s largest trade partner, and as we saw with the recent opening of the Chinese-funded and controlled mega-port in Chancay, Peru, its Belt and Road Initiative promises to further cement that position.

It’s no coincidence that one of the Trump administration’s main bones of contention with Panama was the fact that its government, like most governments in Latin America, had signed the Belt and Road Initiative. To placate Washington’s demands, the Panamanian government recently pledged to quit the initiative.

In the past 18 months, Washington has signed numerous (often hush-hush) agreements with governments in South America aimed at intensifying cooperation in the fight against the region’s drug cartels. More US-made weapons are flowing southward, more US military bases are being approved, including, most recently, in the Galapagos Islands. Both the Milei government in Argentina and the Noboa administration in Ecuador have designated drug cartels as narco-terroristas, opening the way to closer alignment with US Southern Command.

Just this week, Noboa, the US-born son of Ecuador’s richest man, ordered the foreign ministry to seek cooperation agreements with “allied nations” that would allow “the incorporation of special forces” on a temporary basis as support for the Ecuadorian police and armed forces. It is further proof that his government’s declaration of all-out war against the country’s drug gangs just over a year ago has done nothing but fuel the violence and instability, while of course creating more business for US arms manufacturers.

In the first 45 days of 2025, the number of intentional homicides in the country increased by 63%. This, of course, was totally predictable; in fact, we predicted over a year ago that the Noboa government’s labelling of the drug cartels as “terrorist organisations” and “belligerent non-state actors”, rather than reducing the cycle of violence, would almost certainly intensify it.

The same would almost certainly happen in Mexico if the Sheinbaum government intensified its war on the cartels, just as Mexico’s then-President Felipe Calderon did in early 2007 by declaring total war on the drug cartels. Like Noboa, Calderon had neither the resources, expertise, manpower or institutional support to take on such a task.

A Couple of Aces

This time around, Mexico has a couple of aces up its sleeve, however. Firstly, it has a government that seems genuinely interested in protecting Mexican sovereignty. And that government has very high levels of public support. After Trump’s inauguration, Sheinbaum’s approval has risen to 80%, according to the “Polls MX Poll” which averages out approval ratings for the president from a broad selection of opinion polls.

The president has “known how to take advantage” of the crisis with the United States to forge her own image and differentiate herself from her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024), said William Jensen, an associate at the Mexican Council of International Affairs (Comexi).

“Sheinbaum has used the relationship with Trump to define her personality as president and show the public, both at the national and international level, that she has her own style, focused on the technical and pragmatic,” he told EFE.

Sheinbaum’s message that her government is willing to cooperate with US authorities on security issues but will not accept direct US military intervention enjoys broad support across Mexico’s political spectrum. There are exceptions, of course, including some politicians in opposition parties and certain media figures who are calling for direct US intervention in Mexico, but they and their supporters represent a small minority.

The second ace up Mexico’s sleeve is, paradoxically, Donald Trump’s executive order designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organisations. The designation theoretically allows US authorities to impose penalties on entities and individuals that provide material support to cartels. That surely must include the US arms manufacturers and dealers who provide an estimated 70% of all the cartels’ weaponry as well as all the Wall Street, City of London and European banks that help the cartels to launder the proceeds from their businesses.[2]

If Sheinbaum plays her cards right, perhaps she can shift some of the focus onto these major facilitators of the global drugs trade. She has already announced plans to expand the lawsuit filed by Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs during AMLO’s presidency against US arms manufacturers and sellers, accusing them of knowingly selling weapons to Mexican cartels.

It is a step in the right direction. Granted, it is unlikely to lead to any kind of meaningful action on the part of US authorities, whether against US arms manufacturers or the Wall Street banks — as I pointed out in my recent post on the DEA’s ongoing interest in AMLO, the CIA, which was more or less founded by Wall Street bankers and lawyers, has wielded more influence over the modern global drugs trade than any other institution. But it will at least expose the Trump administration’s bare-faced hypocrisy in its crusade against Latin America’s drug cartels.

Notes

[1] Housed in the former Monastery of San Diego Churubusco, which was used as a makeshift fort during the US army’s invasion of Mexico City in 1847, the museum offers a fascinating trip down a dark collective memory lane. Among the exhibits are photos of US soldiers storming into the city of Veracruz in 1914 as well as maps of the Mexico that existed before the US invaded and seized possession of over half its territory between 1846-8.

[2] As readers may recall, Antonio Maria Costa, the former head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, made a bombshell claim in 2009 that hundreds of billions of dollars of drug money had helped to keep the global financial system afloat during the global financial crisis. At one point, the proceeds of organised crime were apparently “the only liquid investment capital” available to some banks on the brink of collapse.

As The Guardian reported in 2011, just one US lender, Wachovia, now part of the giant Wells Fargo, “was sanctioned for failing to apply the proper anti-laundering strictures to the transfer of $378.4bn – a sum equivalent to one-third of Mexico’s gross national product – into dollar accounts from so-called casas de cambio (CDCs) in Mexico, currency exchange houses with which the bank did business.”

Its punishment? $110m in forfeiture, for allowing transactions later proved to be connected to drug smuggling, and a $50m fine. Despite all the evidence showing direct collusion and profiteering between Wall Street and City of London banks and some of the world’s most ruthless drug trafficking organisations, not a single senior bank executive has spent a single night in jail as a result.

(Nick Corbishley is a writer, journalist, teacher, and translator based in Barcelona. Courtesy: Naked Capitalism, an American financial news and analysis blog that “chronicles the large scale, concerted campaign to reduce the bargaining power and pay of ordinary workers relative to investors and elite technocrats”.)