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Mexico’s first female president promised that there will be no return to the “irresponsible” drug war between the government and the cartels.
Claudia Sheinbaum, 62, pledged more intelligence work and investigations to tackle surging drug-related violence during her swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday.
“There will be no return to the irresponsible drug war,” she said.
Tackling organised crime remains a key political issue in Mexico following the “hugs, not bullets” strategy of her predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Left-wing populist.
After taking office in 2018, Mr Obrador declared Mexico’s war on drug cartels “over” and began a policy of addressing the “root causes” of violence.
Claudia Sheinbaum (right) and Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the outgoing president - AFP
Ms Sheinbaum’s comments came after northern Mexico was thrown into chaos because of weeks of deadly gun battles between two factions of the Sinaloa cartel, the country’s biggest and most powerful narcotics gang.
At least 50 people have been killed in the clashes, which began on Sept 9 in the city of Culiacan and have since spread to other parts of Sinaloa.
Mexico’s drug war is considered to have begun in 2006, when Felipe Calderón, the then president, sent troops to the state of Michoacán to tackle drug violence.
In her inauguration speech in Mexico’s congress, Ms Sheinbaum also said: “It’s time for transformation, it’s time for women.
“I’m a mother, a grandmother, a scientist and a woman of faith, and from today, by the will of the Mexican people, the president.”
Claudia Sheinbaum (center) during an inauguration event on Tuesday - Stephania Corpi
She went on to promise limits on food and fuel prices, as well as to expand cash hand-out programmes for women and children.
Ms Sheinbaum was blessed and brushed with herbs and incense by Ernestina Ortiz, a “spiritual guide”, who told her: “You are a voice for all of us who had no voice for a long time.”
An Indigenous elder then handed Ms Sheinbaum a wooden Indigenous “staff of authority”.
After her speech, legislators shouted “Presidenta! Presidenta!”, using the feminine form of president in Spanish for the first time in over 200 years of Mexico’s history as an independent country.
A scientist by training and the former mayor of Mexico City, Ms Sheinbaum won a landslide victory in June.
