As night fell, Mexico City’s main plaza, the Zocalo, slow to fill with Sheinbaum supporters
As night fell, crowds in Mexico City’s main plaza, the Zocalo, still hadn’t formed.
The plaza where frontrunner Claudia Sheinbaum plans to celebrate her victory resonated with music piped through speakers rather than the buzz of yet-to-arrive crowds. It was a stark contrast from just six years before when Mexicans flooded into the plaza in the early hours of the night to celebrate the eventual victory of her political mentor, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Throughout the campaign, Sheinbaum failed to generate the same enthusiasm that López Obrador, better known as by his nickname “AMLO,” has long enjoyed.
After polls closed, supporters of Sheinbaum and López Obrador’s party began to arrive in Mexico City’s Zocalo. Some street vendors were promoting Sheinbaum dolls – though those of the populist president appeared to be selling faster.
Fernando Fernández, a 28-year-old chef, and Itxel Robledo, 28, an administrator, opted to buy two pairs of socks with the image of López Obrador while they waited for the results.
“You vote for Claudia out of conviction, for AMLO,” Fernández said. But his highest hope is that Sheinbaum can “improve what AMLO couldn’t do, the price of gasoline, crime and drug trafficking, which he didn’t combat even though he had the power.”
Robledo said that the best of López Obrador was the fight against corruption. “Yes, he achieved it although there is still more to be done and he helped a lot of poor people with his programs in Mexico,” he added.
Robledo, 28, said she supports López Obrador railing against corruption, but hopes that Sheinbaum will put more professionals in her government.
She hopes if Sheinbaum wins, she’ll be able to govern “without the shadow of López Obrador.”
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