Written by Nikita Shastry
Great strides taken forward in Mexico
Last week, Claudia Sheinbaum was the first woman to be elected as president in Mexico. She won by a huge margin, collecting 58% of votes. Today’s article delves into why her campaign was so successful, what she stands for, and what this outcome means for Mexico’s future.
The woman who broke Mexico’s political glass ceiling, Claudia Sheinbaum, aims to build on her predecessor’s project. The ‘Fourth Transformation’ involves lifting up those from a lower socio-economic background through universal pensions and student grants, aiming to reduce the distribution of Mexico’s income inequality. 2022 recorded their Gini coefficient at 0.44, which is high in comparison to the UK’s 0.35.
Although some have criticised her strategy to follow on from President López Obrador, Claudia Sheinbaum emphasises the necessity of continuing to focus on Mexico’s social issues. Her supporters expect a bigger spotlight to be directed on female rights and violence against women. Given Mexico’s deep-rooted patriarchy, it would be a transformational step forward.
As of now, reducing crime rates in Mexico is especially important. Claudia aspires to reduce the murder rate from 23 to 19 (for every 100,000 people) by 2027, doing so by implementing strategies that she succeeded with in Mexico City.
Right now, the country waits in anticipation for the rates of drug-fuelled violence to lower. We can’t wait to see how she makes an impact on Mexico!
What Claudia Sheinbaum’s historic election win means for U.S.-Mexico relations
Milei’s 6 months of presidency
When President Javier Milei won the 2023 November elections with 56% of the votes, he vowed to cut public spending and tackle inflation as part of making the drastic changes that Argentina desperately needs.
However, Argentina’s annual inflation rate hit 289.4% in April- a record high not seen before in the last 33 years.
But how is this possible when inflation was such a big target for Milei?
At the start of December 2023, Milei announced the devaluation of the peso, which resulted in inflation doubling by January 2024. Importing companies used to have lower import costs as governments subsidised them through an artificial exchange rate. These companies had to pay fewer pesos for the same goods in US dollars, and so these lower import costs resulted in lower consumer prices.
Once the government incorporated devaluation, the artificial exchange rate crept closer to the real exchange rate, leading to importers passing their much higher costs. This was onto the consumers who have to pay for the hyper-inflated prices seen today.
How have Milei’s policies affected Argentinians?
The rate of poverty has doubled from 25% in 2017 to 50% in 2024. People must look for a job as retail prices continue to soar. In doing this, they try to combat inflation and government subsidy cuts from reductions in public spending.
In the long-term, the economy would benefit from an increased percentage of workers in the population. 55% of Argentina’s population isn’t working or actively looking for work.
In some cases, we can view the devaluation of the peso as positive. For example, exports in Argentina were seen to increase by 17% in Milei’s first 100 days. The decreased value of the peso makes it more affordable for other countries to import goods from Argentina. We aim to see the creation of stronger export industries in Argentina’s future.
