The year is 2024 for the first time in the country’s history, after the ruling “Morena” party named the former mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, as its candidate. Under the nomination issued on Wednesday, Sheinbaum (61 years) will face Senator Suchel Galvis (60 years), who became the opposition candidate in the presidential elections Sunday, after winning the primaries of a front that includes three opposition parties. Thus, it is likely that one of them will succeed in 2024, the outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, to lead the second largest economy in Latin America. The victory of a woman in the presidential elections will set a precedent in Mexico, where thousands of cases of femicide and severe violence by drug gangs are recorded annually.

Sheinbaum, who is close to López Obrador, topped the results of an opinion poll organized by the Morena (Movement for Revolutionary Renewal) party to choose between six contenders. Sheinbaum, backed by the president, who enjoys a popular support rate of 60% and whose party has a majority in parliament, is the frontrunner in the elections scheduled for June 2, 2024. After the results were announced, she said, “Today, the people of Mexico have made the decision (…) the electoral process begins tomorrow at the national level. We have no time to waste.” The poll, which was conducted on a sample of 12,500 people, undermined the unity of the left-wing Morena party, whose candidate, López Obrador, won the 2018 elections.