Mexicans on Sunday turned out in a circa 60 percent landslide victory for climate scientist Claudia Sheinbaum, who squashed top rival Xochitl Galvez in the race to succeed outgoing, term-limited President President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the Associated Press reports.
Sheinbaum, who was anointed by Lopez Obrador as his successor, will take office as the first female and the first Jewish person to lead the US’s not terribly stable southern neighbor amid rampant, drug-cartel fueled violence – and regular political violence. “I want to thanks millions of Mexican men and women who decided to vote for us in this historic journey,” Sheinbaum said in her victory speech outlining her plans for a “construction of peace” to build a “diverse and democratic” Mexico.