Claudia Sheinbaum

Claudia Sheinbaum is Mexico's first female president, taking office in October 2024. Born on 24 June 1962 in Mexico City, she is a climate scientist by training (PhD from UNAM, with postdoctoral work at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) and served as Mayor of Mexico City from 2018 to 2024. She ran under the MORENA banner and succeeded Andrés Manuel López Obrador, inheriting both his social-programme architecture and his contested 'hugs not bullets' security approach to cartel violence.

Sheinbaum is the most prominent political figure in Mexico's co-hosting of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. She announced Plan Kukulkan on 5 March 2026, deploying up to 100,000 security forces across Mexico's three host cities after CJNG retaliatory violence killed at least 70 people across a dozen states following the military killing of cartel leader El Mencho. Sheinbaum personally visited Jalisco the following day — the CJNG's heartland — a signal that the federal government was not leaving security to state authorities. She offered to host Iran's relocated Group G matches after FIFA rejected Iran's request to move fixtures from US venues, and announced FIFA's negative decision herself on 12 April 2026. On kickoff day, 11 June 2026, the CNTE teachers' union occupied the Zócalo — Mexico City's central square and planned fan zone — with families of the disappeared joining the protest. Sheinbaum offered 18 alternative viewing venues and declined to commit to clearing the site, saying only 'Let's see how things develop.' The juxtaposition of the largest security deployment in World Cup history with domestic protest at the tournament's opening moment crystallised the tensions her presidency must navigate.