Mexico's Sheinbaum: from activist to climate scientist to presidential frontrunner
World
Mexico's Sheinbaum: from activist to climate scientist to presidential frontrunner
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - When Claudia Sheinbaum - the frontrunner to become Mexico's next president - was just six years old, her parents were active participants in protests during one of the darkest periods of the country's modern history.
It was 1968, the Institutional Revolutionary Party had governed Mexico with an iron fist for decades and the country was swept by large demonstrations pressing for democratic change. In one horrific incident, as many as 400 students at a protest were killed by soldiers and paramilitary forces.
The tragedy only galvanized her parents and Sheinbaum grew up in a family steeped in activism.
Now the clear favorite to succeed popular President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Sunday's election and likely make history as Mexico's first female president, Sheinbaum, 61, says she owes much to her chemical engineer father and cellular biologist mother.
They bestowed a passion for politics, a love for nature and a deep interest in science, she said in a biopic released last year that was directed by her son.
"I grew up with that duality - a belief that politics can transform the world alongside an academic and scientific mindset," reflected Sheinbaum.
Looking back, it seems only natural that she would go on to be a student protester, a climate scientist and a politician.
Sheinbaum's values aligned with Lopez Obrador's policies which she has pledged to continue.
She wants to assume his mantle as a defender of the state, cement public control of natural resources, as well as strengthen his welfare programs and flagship infrastructure projects. In a slight departure, she has called for a greater emphasis on renewable energy usage.
FROM PROTESTS TO POLITICS
The second of three children, Sheinbaum hails from a Jewish family, including her mother's parents who migrated to Mexico from Bulgaria as they fled Nazi aggression in the 1930s.
Growing up in Mexico City, Sheinbaum learned to play the guitar and studied ballet, details that her critics have used to paint her as elitist and out of touch with ordinary Mexicans.
Her activism started early.
At 15, she volunteered to help groups of mothers searching for their missing children, a long-standing plight in a country with a history of raging gangland violence.
