On a recent Friday, President Claudia Sheinbaum was within the Mexican presidential palace during her daily press conference in the morning and one of the journalists asked if she had spoken with President Trump about a visit to the White House.
“We have talked about how good it would be to know in person, but there is still nothing formal,” Sheinbaum replied. “When necessary, we talk directly; but there is dialogue.”
At a time when Trump seems to be choosing fights with allies from around the world, and threatening tremendous tariff Agreement skills of its president.
His negotiation powers have won Sheinbaum the type of praise that the US president generally reserves for strong and dictators Call it A “very wonderful woman”, while the foreign press has been equally advanced.
The Washington Post called Sheinbaum “Trump's main whore”, while The New York Times He reflected that it could be “the anti-trump.” Bloomberg He reflected whether the Mexican leader was “the most powerful woman in the world.”
At home, she also has Great praise for its efforts to manage the most important bilateral relationship of Mexico and its approval qualifications They have shot 70% when he assumed the position in October to more than 80% in March, according to the local newspaper El Financiero.
But even when Sheinbaum has been legitimately praised for his efforts in the management of his struggle and volatile counterpart north of the border, there are a series of domestic problems that could accompany his record of victories.
While the Mexican leader avoided the worst of Trump's blanket rates, he is still having a 25% collection in cars, steel and aluminum that are sold in the US 0.3% contraction In 2025. Mexicans would feel that, and Sheinbaum's popularity could suffer.
And although the murders have fell sharply Since he assumed the position, according to state figures, security remains a critical problem in Mexico: a government survey Launched last month He discovered that more than 6 out of 10 Mexicans living in cities felt insecure.
With posters controlling Around a third of the territory of Mexico, according to the estimates of the United States army, it is not difficult to see why. Shortly after Sheinbaum assumed the position, Violence broke out In the northern city of Culiacán, where the gangs murdered hundreds of people, the shots razed the air in broad daylight and explosions crossed the night.
Perhaps the most worrying of everything is the number of disappearances, A long -term horror that continues to be aware. During the presidency of Sheinbaum, more than 8,000 people have disappeared, or an average of 41 people per day.
Since 1962, more than 120,000 people have disappeared or missing, according to to official figures. Although such disappearances were once associated with the State, especially the Secret Police of Mexico, in recent decades the tactic has become a poster tool to exercise control through terror.
The scale of the crisis was caught the attention of the nation in March when a group of activist search engines met an abandoned ranch in the western state of Jalisco. Inside there was a unimaginable horror sceneOne that recalled the Nazi concentration camps: zipper ovens, carbonized human remains, bone fragments.
Perhaps the most heartbreaking of everything, there were also dozens of backpacks, torn photographs, lots of clothes and hundreds of pairs of shoes. The “Mexican Auschwitz”, as it has been called, became a national scandal that broke out for weeks.
But as happens too often in Mexico, the scandal remained just that. While the media described him as an extermination center, Sheinbaum avoided the idea at a press conference by suggesting that it was a recruitment camp. The fingers were pointed; The ruling party of Morena blocked a bill to initiate a special commission to investigate the case.
When the UN Committee on Forced Disappearances said last month that it would seek accused them of being poorly informed.
If you cannot address the crisis of the most directly disappearances, it is unlikely to hold on to that approval index of 80%.
Meanwhile, next month, Sheinbaum can face the greatest proof of his presidency so far, with Mexico embarking on a first election that allows voters to choose judges from the level of the district to the Supreme Court.
A final and deeply controversial reform promoted by its predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, weeks before leaving office, The choice will see More than 3,000 candidates compete for 881 roles throughout the Judiciary.
In the best case, the process promises to be chaotic, with the head of the Mexico Institute of Elections by admitting that the agency is not prepared “in terms of the size of the task, how hurried it is and the budget cuts that faces.”
In the worst case, the elections could be affected by violence and their legitimacy questioned. Mexico's last federal election was his most violent with 34 murdered candidates During the campaign. With organized crime that infects almost every corner of Mexican life, this choice could also be bloody: last month, the leader of the majority of the Senate accepted that some of the judicial candidates had links with criminal groups.
And even if the election is executed without problems, with candidates favored by the ruling party of Morena that probably goes up to the ruling party would have control of the Executive, the legislative and judicial branches of the government. This would drag Mexico towards the rule of a party that endured for much of the twentieth century. It would also increase expectations about how much Sheinbaum should be able to achieve, with such a party unit behind it.
During A speech In January, Sheinbaum defended the judicial election as an exercise of democracy and a means to eliminate corruption. Whether it is true or not to be seen, but with its rising global star, the world will carefully observe.
Oscar López is a Mexican author and journalist based in Mexico City who works in a book on the origins of forced disappearance during the dirty war of Mexico.
