Inauguration Sheinbaum was sworn in as president on 1 October 2024, becoming the first woman, as well as the first person with Jewish heritage, to hold the office. The presidential sash was handed to her by
Ifigenia Martínez, the
president of the Congress of the Union and a prominent figure for the Mexican left. In her address to Congress, Sheinbaum thanked her predecessor, highlighted her historic election as the first woman to the presidency, pledged responsible fiscal policies, and reassured foreign investors. Her inauguration was attended by 105 representatives from various countries, including 16 heads of state and 23 delegates from international organizations. Notable attendees included Brazilian president
Lula da Silva, Chilean president
Gabriel Boric, Colombian president
Gustavo Petro, former German president
Christian Wulff, and US first lady
Jill Biden. King
Felipe VI of Spain was controversially not invited, with Sheinbaum citing his failure to respond to López Obrador's 2019 letter requesting an apology for the abuses committed during the
Spanish conquest. This prompted a boycott by the Spanish government.
Cabinet Sheinbaum's initial cabinet was described as a mix of political allies and appointees with academic or specialized professional backgrounds. Several figures from López Obrador's administration remained in office, including
Rogelio Ramírez de la O as
Secretary of Finance and
Ariadna Montiel Reyes as
Secretary of Welfare.
Rosa Icela Rodríguez was named
Secretary of the Interior, having previously served as López Obrador's
Secretary of Security and Civilian Protection and as Sheinbaum's government secretary in Mexico City. From her Mexico City government, she appointed García Harfuch as Secretary of Security and Civilian Protection and
Luz Elena González as
Secretary of Energy. Sheinbaum expanded the federal cabinet by creating three new secretariats: the Secretariat of Women (replacing the ), the Secretariat of Science, Humanities, Technology and Innovation (replacing
CONAHCYT), and the Digital Transformation and Telecommunications Agency. She also replaced the Secretariat of the Civil Service with the
Secretariat of Anticorruption and Good Governance. On 2 October 2024, the anniversary of the
Tlatelolco massacre, Sheinbaum issued a decree acknowledging the State's responsibility for the killings. The decree included a public apology, which was delivered by Secretary of the Interior Rosa Icela Rodríguez. at the National Palace, Mexico City, marking the first time the ceremony was led by a woman.Faced with what many described as a looming constitutional crisis, Sheinbaum rejected a Supreme Court proposal to strike down parts of the judicial reform bill passed by López Obrador, asserting that the judiciary has no authority to review constitutional amendments and signaling she would not comply with any adverse ruling. She subsequently published a bill enshrining constitutional supremacy, which limited legal challenges to constitutional amendments strictly to procedural grounds.
Crime and the drug war Sheinbaum’s security strategy is built around four core pillars: addressing the root causes of violence, strengthening the National Guard, enhancing intelligence and investigative capabilities, and maintaining constant communication between the security cabinet and the country's
federative entities. She appointed
Omar García Harfuch to head the
Secretariat of Security and Civilian Protection (SSCP), a role he previously held in her Mexico City cabinet. Her administration adopted a more hard-handed approach toward organized crime, with the SSCP going after organized crime's logistical networks and "violence generators", marking a departure from López Obrador's "
hugs, not bullets" strategy. The SSPC's powers were expanded through legislation that facilitated closer collaboration with the
Attorney General's Office, improved intelligence gathering across all levels of government, and allowed the SSPC to request information from any agency for criminal investigations. Her administration expanded the catalogue of crimes subject to mandatory
pre-trial detention, including
extortion,
contraband, the use of false tax receipts, and activities related to the production, trafficking, and distribution of synthetic drugs such as
fentanyl and its derivatives. She also continued the militarization of the National Guard, endorsing its continued integration into the Secretariat of National Defense, and launched a nationwide
gun buyback program called () to reduce the number of weapons in circulation. During the first months of Sheinbaum's administration, the homicide rate decreased by approximately 25%, with daily homicides falling from 86.9 at the start of her term to 64.5 as of May 2025. Other high-impact crimes, including kidnappings and bank robberies, also decreased during this period, although incidents of extortion and the number of disappearances have continued to rise, with about 8,000 new cases of
disappeared persons reported during the same period. The administration reported significant increases in drug seizures; by June 2025, authorities had confiscated approximately 178 tonnes of narcotics, including 3 million fentanyl pills, from 1,150 clandestine laboratories. Efforts to combat fuel theft, known as
huachicol, were also expanded, with multiple seizures conducted at sea and at illegal refineries across the country. Despite reported gains, Sheinbaum's presidency has been marked by ongoing cartel violence. Across the country,
political assassinations have continued at a high pace, leaving local officials particularly vulnerable.
Clashes between rival factions of the Sinaloa Cartel contributed to a more than 400 percent increase in homicides in
Sinaloa during the first half of 2025, prompting federal deployment of additional forces and arrests of mid-to-high ranking members of both factions. In March 2025, authorities discovered a
training camp in Teuchitlán, Jalisco, allegedly used by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) as a forced recruitment center, which resulted in the arrest of a dozen people, including the municipality's mayor and alleged CJNG recruiter "El Comandante Lastra". Violence in
Michoacán also intensified, defined by a turf war between the CJNG and
Cárteles Unidos that has led to rampant extortion of the state's avocado and lime industries and a wave of assassinations targeting public and community leaders, including the murder of
Uruapan's mayor,
Carlos Manzo.
Energy Sheinbaum continued elements of the energy nationalism advanced by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, aiming to strengthen the state-owned
Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and
Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex). On 30 October 2024, she published a constitutional amendment that reclassified both entities as public institutions and established a mandate for the CFE to retain 54 percent of the national electricity generation market, with the remaining 46 percent allocated to private producers. Her administration also revised oil production targets, setting a goal of 1.8 million barrels per day—lower than the 2 million barrels pursued under López Obrador.
Infrastructure and passenger rail During her presidency, Sheinbaum made the expansion of Mexico’s passenger rail network a central element of her infrastructure agenda, promoting state-led development of intercity rail and enacting a constitutional amendment restoring federal authority over passenger rail operations. Her administration announced plans to construct approximately 3,000 kilometres of new lines, including the Mexico–Pachuca, Mexico–Nuevo Laredo, and Mexico–Nogales lines. She also oversaw the inauguration of the final sections of the
Tren Maya in 2024, and in February 2026 she inaugurated the
Santa Fe–
Observatorio section of
Tren El Insurgente, completing the Mexico City–Toluca interurban rail link begun in 2014. In 2024, Sheinbaum announced a MX$33 billion investment to modernize six ports across Mexico:
Ensenada, Baja California;
Manzanillo, Colima;
Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán;
Acapulco, Guerrero;
Veracruz, Veracruz; and Progreso, Yucatán. Sheinbaum has continued her predecessor's practice of employing
SEDENA's Military Engineers Corps. to build government infrastructure projects.
Institutional reform Sheinbaum continued the centralization of executive authority by dissolving seven autonomous agencies in late 2024: the
Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT), the
Federal Economic Competition Commission (COFECE), the
National Institute for Transparency (INAI), the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE), the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH), the
National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL), and the National Institute for the Evaluation of Education (MejorEdu). Their functions were transferred to various cabinet ministries in what the administration described as an effort to streamline government operations and reduce public spending, though critics argued that the measure undermined transparency, regulatory independence, and checks on executive power. On 1 April 2025, Sheinbaum published a constitutional reform to prohibit immediate reelection and bar close relatives of incumbents from running for the same office; although initially set for 2027, its implementation was postponed to 2030 following negotiations within the ruling coalition in the Senate. In February 2026, Sheinbaum proposed a broader electoral reform package to reduce the size of the
Senate, modify proportional representation, cut party financing and electoral costs, eliminate the preliminary results program (PREP), and regulate the use of artificial intelligence in campaigns; however, the proposal failed to obtain a two-thirds majority after coalition allies—the
Ecologist Green Party of Mexico (PVEM) and the
Labor Party (PT)—withheld support amid concerns that the changes would weaken smaller parties, reduce their political influence, and concentrate power in the ruling party.
Protests and social unrest The
Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE) organized repeated strikes, work stoppages, and protest encampments, pressuring the government to fulfill campaign promises regarding the repeal of the 2007 ISSSTE Law and the improvement of pension benefits. In the fall of 2025, widespread farmer strikes and highway blockades erupted across multiple states, with agricultural workers and truckers demanding higher guaranteed crop prices, improved highway security, and the rejection of a water reform bill promoted by the government; these actions frequently paralyzed transport routes leading into Mexico City. In November 2025, a
series of demonstrations opposing the administration—sparked in part by the assassination of Uruapan mayor Carlos Manzo—took place in several cities; Sheinbaum characterized the protests as politically motivated and lacking organic support.
Welfare Sheinbaum expanded federal social programs including the introduction of the Women's Wellbeing Pension (
Pensión Mujeres Bienestar), which provides bimonthly financial assistance to senior women aged 60 to 64, and the launch of the House to House Health (
Salud Casa a Casa) program, which delivers home-based medical care to elderly people and individuals with disabilities. She also renamed the Benito Juárez Scholarship (
Beca Benito Juárez) to the Rita Cetina Gutiérrez Universal Scholarship (
Beca Universal Rita Cetina Gutiérrez), expanding it to provide bimonthly financial aid to all families with children enrolled in the public
basic educational system. On 2 December 2024, Sheinbaum elevated several social programs to constitutional law. Her administration has continued to prioritize social spending in budget allocations, with social program spending equivalent to approximately 3% of gross domestic product, according to the 2026 budget. Sheinbaum proposed a constitutional reform providing that annual minimum wage increases may not be set below the inflation rate; while the reform had not yet been enacted, wage policy has been implemented in line with this framework, with the daily minimum wage set at MX$278.80 and later increased to MX$315.04 for 2026, consistent with a stated objective of reaching the equivalent of 2.5
food baskets by 2030. The administration also formalized the
Ley Silla, granting service-sector workers the right to seating and rest periods, enacted a reform regulating digital platform work that extends
IMSS social security coverage and mandatory occupational accident insurance to active platform workers, and reached a tripartite agreement to gradually reduce the legal workweek from 48 to 40 hours beginning in 2027.
Foreign policy , Brazilian President
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Chilean President
Gabriel Boric in November 2024 In November 2024, Sheinbaum took her first trip abroad as president to attend the
G20 summit. At the summit, she proposed allocating 1% of global military spending to
reforestation efforts and advocated for expanding the
United Nations Security Council to include seats for Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and small island nations. Sheinbaum also held bilateral meetings with U.S. president
Joe Biden, Canadian prime minister
Justin Trudeau, Chinese leader
Xi Jinping, French president
Emmanuel Macron, and the leaders of
MIKTA member states. Starting in 2026, Sheinbaum's government increased tariffs on many imports from countries that Mexico previously did not have a free trade agreement with, primarily affecting Chinese goods, in line with US trade policies amid their concerns that China had used Mexico to circumvent its own tariffs. The Chinese government warned Mexico against tariffs and said it would retaliate against the measure, and its commerce ministry later stated it would launch an investigation into Mexico's trade policy. On 6 November 2025, the
Peruvian Congress declared Sheinbaum
persona non grata over the Mexican government's decision to grant asylum to former prime minister
Betssy Chávez, who sought shelter at the Mexican embassy in
Lima amid an investigation against her on charges relating to the
2022 Peruvian self-coup attempt.
Middle East Sheinbaum has expressed support for the
two-state solution in the
Israel–Palestine conflict, emphasising that Mexico recognizes both
Israel and
Palestine and that recognizing both is necessary for achieving peace in the
Middle East. In March 2025, she received the Palestinian ambassador to Mexico. While Sheinbaum has condemned attacks on civilian populations—including the
October 7 attacks,
subsequent violence in Gaza, and other
acts of aggression in the region—she initially refrained from characterizing Israel's military actions in Gaza as genocide.
United States In October 2024, Sheinbaum's administration resumed diplomatic relations with the
U.S. ambassador to Mexico,
Ken Salazar, which had been suspended by López Obrador due to U.S. criticism of Mexico's judicial reforms. New diplomatic protocols were established, preventing the ambassador from speaking directly with members of the
Mexican cabinet. Following the
2024 United States presidential election, Sheinbaum congratulated
Donald Trump on his victory, though relations soon faced renewed strain after Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on Mexican imports over migration and security concerns. Sheinbaum warned of reciprocal measures while calling for dialogue and reiterated Mexico’s criticism of the flow of U.S.-sourced firearms into the country. In early 2025, negotiations led to the temporary suspension and later indefinite delay of the proposed tariffs, following agreements on enhanced border enforcement and cooperation against arms trafficking. During this period, Mexico extradited high-profile criminal suspects to the United States, which the Sheinbaum administration described as evidence of ongoing security cooperation conducted within Mexico’s legal framework. Sheinbaum firmly rejected U.S. proposals to designate Mexican
drug cartels as
foreign terrorist organizations, arguing that such a move would violate Mexico’s sovereignty and risk justifying foreign intervention. She also publicly opposed any suggestion of U.S. military action on Mexican territory, reiterating that security cooperation must exclude external intervention. Bilateral relations were further strained by disputes over water deliveries under the
1944 Water Treaty, with Sheinbaum defending Mexico’s compliance efforts amid drought conditions while engaging in negotiations to prevent escalation. Sheinbaum's reserved responses to Trump, characterized by an emphasis on dialogue and de-escalation, have been praised domestically and internationally. In April 2025, Sheinbaum moved to outlaw foreign propaganda in response to an
anti-migrant advertisement broadcast on Mexican TV that was paid for by the Trump administration. Sheinbaum has condemned U.S. military operations abroad as violations of international law. Following
United States strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, she described war as "humanity’s greatest failure," quoting
Pope Francis, and called for the
United Nations to assume a leading role in international peacebuilding efforts. She later strongly condemned the
U.S. military operation in Venezuela on 3 January 2026, citing Article 2 of the United Nations Charter and urging the United States to comply with international law and end what she described as acts of aggression against the Venezuelan government and people.
Approval rating Throughout her first year in office, Sheinbaum maintained high public approval ratings, consistently polling above 70%. Between January and April 2025, her approval rose to approximately 80%, a surge that several analysts described as a
rally 'round the flag effect following her initial handling of tariffs imposed by U.S. President
Donald Trump. By December 2025, surveys by
Enkoll and
El Financiero indicated that her approval had moderated to approximately 70%, coinciding with heightened public concern over violence in states such as Michoacán and broader economic uncertainty. Despite this decline, her disapproval rating remained comparatively low, at about 24%, and her approval continued to exceed that of her predecessor, López Obrador, at the same point in his presidency. Demographically, Sheinbaum’s strongest support has been recorded among older adults, with approval ranging from 72% to as high as 86% in late 2025. This demographic is frequently cited as the primary beneficiary of the administration's expanded social programs. Support has been lower among younger voters, with approval among those aged 18–24 polling between 57% and 66%. == Political views ==