Claudia Sheinbaum
Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo is a Mexican politician, energy and climate change scientist, and academic who has been serving as the 66th president of Mexico since 2024. She is the first woman and the first Jewish person to hold the office. A member of the National Regeneration Movement, she previously served as Head of Government of Mexico City from 2018 to 2023. In 2025, Forbes ranked Sheinbaum as the fifth most powerful woman in the world.
A scientist by profession, Sheinbaum received her doctorate in energy engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She has co-authored over 100 articles and two books on energy, the environment, and sustainable development. She contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and, in 2018, was named one of BBC's 100 Women.
Sheinbaum joined the Party of the Democratic Revolution in 1989. From 2000 to 2006, she served as secretary of the environment in the Federal District under Andrés Manuel López Obrador. She left the PRD in 2014 to join López Obrador's splinter movement, Morena, and was elected mayor of Tlalpan borough in 2015. In 2018, she became Head of Government of Mexico City, focusing on security, public transport, and social programs, while also overseeing major crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Mexico City Metro overpass collapse. She resigned in 2023 to run for president and won Morena's nomination over Marcelo Ebrard. In the 2024 presidential election, she defeated Xóchitl Gálvez in a landslide.
As president, Sheinbaum enacted a series of constitutional reforms with the support of her legislative supermajority, including enshrining social programs into the Constitution, reversing key aspects of the 2013 energy reform to strengthen state control over the energy sector, and mandating that the minimum wage increase be above the rate of inflation.
Early life and family
Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo was born on 24 June 1962 in Mexico City, within a Mexican Jewish family. She is the second child of chemist Carlos Sheinbaum Yoselevitz and biologist Annie Pardo Cemo.Carlos Sheinbaum was of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. His father, Chone Juan Sheinbaum Abramovitz, had emigrated from Lithuania in 1928, becoming a jewelry merchant and a member of the Mexican Communist Party. Annie Pardo is from a Sephardi Jewish family who arrived in Mexico in 1946, after fleeing from the persecution of Jews in Bulgaria during World War II. Pardo became the first Sephardic woman to be an academic at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional.
Sheinbaum's parents were actively involved in Mexican left-wing circles during the 1960s, participating in protests, workers' movements, and student uprisings.
Sheinbaum has two siblings. Her older brother, Julio, is a physicist and physical oceanography researcher at CICESE. Her younger sister, Adriana, is a teacher who lives in the United States and is married to film director Rodrigo García Barcha, a son of Colombian writer and Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez.
Academic career
Sheinbaum earned a bachelor's degree in physics at UNAM in 1989, a master's degree in 1994, and a Ph.D. in energy engineering in 1995.Sheinbaum completed the work for her Ph.D. thesis between 1991 and 1994 at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. While working for the laboratory, she analyzed energy use in the Mexican transportation sector and published studies on the trends in Mexican building energy use.
In 1995, Sheinbaum joined the faculty of the Institute of Engineering at UNAM. In 1999, she received the prize for being the best UNAM young researcher in engineering and technological innovation.
In 2006, Sheinbaum returned to UNAM after a period in government and began publishing articles in scientific journals.
In 2007, Sheinbaum contributed to the "Industry" chapter of the section in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and, in 2013, served as a lead author for the chapter in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report.
Early political career
During her time as a student at UNAM, Sheinbaum was a member of the University Student Council, a group of students that would become the founding youth movement of the Party of the Democratic Revolution.File:Madrid y Ciudad de México, dispuestas a reforzar su mutua colaboración 01.jpg|thumb|Madrid mayor Manuela Carmena meets with Sheinbaum at the Cibeles Palace.
Sheinbaum served as the secretary of the environment of the Federal District from 5 December 2000 to 15 May 2006, appointed by Head of Government of the Federal District Andrés Manuel López Obrador. During her term, she was responsible for constructing an electronic vehicle registration center for Mexico City. She also oversaw the introduction of the Metrobús, a bus rapid transit system with dedicated lanes, and the construction of the second storey of Mexico City's ring road, Anillo Periférico.
Following López Obrador’s narrow loss in the 2006 presidential election, Sheinbaum was tasked with assembling a team to investigate what he described as electoral fraud. The group analyzed tally sheets and used data from the Preliminary Electoral Results Program, concluding that the main irregularity was the alleged alteration of vote totals on polling station records. Sheinbaum also presented video evidence of alleged violations, including tampered ballot packages and improperly sealed envelopes, in several districts. The findings were submitted to the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary as part of a request for a full recount, which the tribunal ultimately denied.
López Obrador included Sheinbaum in his proposed cabinet for the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources as part of his campaign for the 2012 presidential election. In 2014, she joined López Obrador's splinter movement, the National Regeneration Movement, which broke away from the mainstream left-wing party, the Party of the Democratic Revolution.
Mayor of Tlalpan
In the 2015 Federal District local elections, Sheinbaum was nominated by the National Regeneration Movement for the mayorship of Tlalpan. She campaigned on a platform focused on improving public services and public spaces, reducing corruption, and implementing social programs for women and young adults. She won with 29.48% of the vote, flipping the borough from the Party of the Democratic Revolution, which had governed the borough since 2000.On 5 December 2017, Sheinbaum resigned to run for Head of Government of Mexico City as a candidate for the Juntos Haremos Historia coalition, composed of Morena, the Labor Party, and the Social Encounter Party.
Chapel demolition
On 29 April 2016, city staff were ordered to demolish a wall that had been built illegally adjacent to a chapel in Tlalpan's Cultura Maya neighborhood. The workers instructed to demolish the wall also destroyed part of the chapel's structure, including its sheet metal roof, and removed religious images. Juan Guillermo Blandón Pérez, the parish priest, alleged that Sheinbaum was responsible for demolishing the chapel and claimed that it was carried out without prior notification.Days after the chapel's demolition, borough authorities acknowledged their error. Sheinbaum met with church representatives and proposed dividing the property in half to build a new chapel and a community art center.
Enrique Rébsamen School collapse
The Colegio Enrique Rébsamen, a private school in Tlalpan, collapsed during the 2017 Puebla earthquake, killing 19 children and seven adults. In September 2016, the city's Institute for Administrative Verification had ruled that the school's building infringed zoning regulations and was built higher than was allowed and that the owner, Mónica García Villegas, had presented falsified documents. Sheinbaum faced criticism for not providing a complete account of the permits for the school's land use, construction, and operation. Enrique Fuentes, a lawyer representing the deceased children's parents, stated that the mayor had an obligation to take action but had failed to do so, allowing the school to continue operating.2018 campaign for the Head of Government of Mexico City
In August 2017, Sheinbaum participated in a poll by the National Regeneration Movement to determine the party's candidate for the head of government of Mexico City. The other contenders were Martí Batres, Mario Delgado, and Ricardo Monreal. Sheinbaum secured first place with 15.9% of the vote, beating her closest opponent, Batres, by 5.8 points. On 5 December 2017, Sheinbaum stepped down as mayor of Tlalpan to register her pre-candidacy.At her campaign launch on 1 April 2018, Sheinbaum prioritized fighting crime, stating that she would hold regular public hearings, publish reported crime statistics, and rely on the Security Council for guidance. She committed to generating 1 million jobs during her term, maintaining the universal pension for seniors, and expanding the Mexico City Metrobús system to connect the city's outskirts with the center.
During the campaign period, Sheinbaum was accused by members of Por México al Frente of being culpable for the collapse of the Colegio Enrique Rébsamen, a private school in Tlalpan, during the 2017 Puebla earthquake.
On 1 July 2018, Sheinbaum was elected to a six-year term as the head of government of Mexico City with 47.08% of the vote, defeating six other candidates.
Head of Government of Mexico City (2018–2023)
On 5 December 2018, Sheinbaum was inaugurated as Mexico City's head of government. She became the first elected female head of government and the first to come from a Jewish background.Sheinbaum's administration was characterized by a strong relationship with the federal government and President López Obrador. However, she took distinct approaches to certain issues, such as managing the COVID-19 pandemic, where her scientific background shaped the city's response to the crisis.
Sheinbaum resigned on 16 June 2023 to participate in the internal selection for the Morena-led coalition, Juntos Hacemos Historia, ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Sheinbaum recommended Batres as substitute head of government, a choice later ratified by the Congress of Mexico City.