Sheinbaum to take office as Mexico's first woman president

MEXICO CITY - Claudia Sheinbaum will be sworn in Tuesday as Mexico's first woman president, inheriting a country beset by gang violence and fresh economic uncertainty over controversial reforms passed by her powerful ruling party.

The 62-year-old former Mexico City mayor will take office in the presence of foreign dignitaries including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and US First Lady Jill Biden.

Sheinbaum will take the oath of office in Congress -- officially becoming leader of the world's most populous Spanish-speaking country, home to 129 million people -- and receive the presidential sash before a celebration in Mexico City's main square.

Supporters began gathering from dawn on inauguration day, which authorities declared a national holiday.

"We arrived at five in the morning," said Marta Ramirez, a housewife who came by bus from the central city of Leon.

A woman president "understands the people better," she said.

Sheinbaum on several occasions has said "it's time for women and transformation" in Mexico, a nation with a history of gender-based discrimination and violence, with around 10 women or girls murdered every day.

But having a woman president is no guarantee of a greater focus on women's rights, said Maria Fernanda Bozmoski, a deputy director at the US-based Atlantic Council think tank.

"When we think of other women leaders in the region, that hasn't necessarily translated into women's issues being a priority," she told AFP, noting that Sheinbaum also faced other pressing issues such as security, energy and foreign policy.

One high-profile absence will be Spanish King Felipe VI, whom Sheinbaum refused to invite, accusing him of failing to acknowledge harm caused by colonization.

In response, Spain announced it would boycott the inauguration, despite its strong economic and historic links with Mexico.

- Popular predecessor retires -

A scientist by training, Sheinbaum swept to victory in June with a vow to continue the reform agenda of outgoing leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a close ally.

Lopez Obrador leaves the presidential palace after six years due to the country's single-term limit, despite an approval rating of around 70 percent, largely thanks to his policies aimed at helping poorer Mexicans.

He bequeaths Sheinbaum the leadership of a nation where murders and kidnappings occur daily and ultra-violent drug cartels control vast swaths of territory.

Spiraling criminal violence, much of it linked to drug trafficking and gangs, has seen more than 450,000 people murdered in Mexico since 2006.

While Sheinbaum has pledged to stick to the outgoing president's controversial "hugs not bullets" strategy -- using social policy to tackle crime at its roots -- experts expect some changes in her approach.

"It will be a modified version of hugs not bullets that will be more reliant on intelligence and therefore more effective at getting things done," said Professor Pamela Starr, an expert on Mexico at the University of Southern California.

The new president will also have to deal with the fallout from a row over newly passed judicial reforms that will make Mexico the world's only country to elect all judges by popular vote.

Dozens of judicial workers demonstrated on Tuesday morning near Congress -- the latest in several weeks of protests.

Lopez Obrador argued the reforms were needed to clean up a "rotten" judiciary serving the interests of the political and economic elite.

The changes, which critics argued would make it easier for politicians and organized crime to influence the courts, upset foreign investors as well as key trade partners the United States and Canada.

Even so, experts think Sheinbaum is likely to maintain good relations with whoever wins the US election on 5 November -- particularly if it is Democrat Kamala Harris, who would also be her country's first woman president.

While there will still be "some tension and friction," especially over migration, both countries need each other and Sheinbaum is likely to be "much more pragmatic, perhaps even less confrontational than her predecessor," Bozmoski said.

By Daniel Rook