Mexico
\nClaudia Sheinbaum was elected Mexico\u2019s first woman president by a landslide Sunday, making history in a country plagued by rampant criminal and gender-based violence.
\nCrowds of flag-waving supporters sang and danced to mariachi music in Mexico City\u2019s main square celebrating the ruling party candidate\u2019s victory.
\n\u201cI want to thank millions of Mexican women and men who decided to vote for us on this historic day,\u201d Sheinbaum said in a victory speech to the cheering crowd.
\n\u201cI won\u2019t fail you,\u201d the 61-year-old former Mexico City mayor vowed.
\nShe thanked her main opposition rival Xochitl Galvez, who conceded defeat.
\nSheinbaum, a scientist by training, won around 58-60 percent of votes, according to preliminary official results from the National Electoral Institute.
\nThat was more than 30 percentage points ahead of Galvez, and some 50 percentage points ahead of the only man running, long-shot centrist Jorge Alvarez Maynez.
\nVoters had flocked to polling stations across the Latin American nation, despite sporadic violence in areas terrorized by ultra-violent drug cartels.
\nThousands of troops were deployed to protect voters, following a particularly bloody electoral process that has seen more than two dozen aspiring local politicians murdered.
\n\u2018Transformation\u2019
\nMexican women going to the polls had cheered the prospect of a woman breaking the highest political glass ceiling in a country where around 10 women or girls are murdered every day.
\n\u201cA female president will be a transformation for this country, and we hope that she does more for women,\u201d said Clemencia Hernandez, a 55-year-old cleaner in Mexico City.
\n\u201cMany women are subjugated by their partners. They\u2019re not allowed to leave home to work,\u201d she said.
\nDaniela Perez, 30, said that having a woman president would be \u201csomething historic,\u201d even though neither of the two main candidates was \u201ctotally feminist\u201d in her view.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ll have to see their positions on improving women\u2019s rights, resolving the issue of femicides \u2014 which have gone crazy \u2014 supporting women more,\u201d added the logistics company manager.
\nNearly 100 million people were registered to vote in the world\u2019s most populous Spanish-speaking country, home to 129 million people.
\nSheinbaum owes much of her popularity to outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a fellow leftist and mentor who has an approval rating of more than 60 percent but is only allowed to serve one term.
\nLopez Obrador congratulated his ally with \u201call my affection and respect.\u201d As well as being the first woman to lead Mexico, \u201cshe is also the president with possibly the most votes obtained in the history of our country,\u201d he said.
\nAfter casting her ballot, Sheinbaum revealed she had not voted for herself but for a 93-year-old veteran leftist, Ifigenia Martinez, in recognition of her struggle.
\n\u2018Hugs not bullets\u2019
\nIn a nation where politics, crime and corruption are closely entangled, drug cartels went to extreme lengths to ensure that their preferred candidates win.
\nHours before polls opened, a local candidate was murdered in a violent western state, authorities said, joining at least 25 other political hopefuls killed this election season, according to official figures.
\nIn the central Mexican state of Puebla, two people died after unknown persons attacked polling stations to steal papers, a local government security source told AFP.
\nVoting was suspended in two municipalities in the southern state of Chiapas because of violence.
\nSheinbaum has pledged to continue the outgoing president\u2019s controversial \u201chugs not bullets\u201d strategy of tackling crime at its roots.
\nGalvez vowed a tougher approach to cartel-related violence, declaring \u201chugs for criminals are over.\u201d
\nMore than 450,000 people have been murdered and tens of thousands have gone missing since the government deployed the army to fight drug trafficking in 2006.
\nThe next president will also have to manage delicate relations with the neighboring United States, in particular the vexed issues of cross-border drug smuggling and migration.
\nAs well as choosing a new president, Mexicans voted for members of Congress, several state governors and myriad local officials \u2014 a total of more than 20,000 positions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum was elected Mexico\u2019s first woman president by a landslide Sunday, making history in a country plagued by rampant criminal and gender-based violence. Crowds of flag-waving supporters sang and danced to mariachi music in Mexico City\u2019s main square celebrating the ruling party candidate\u2019s victory. \u201cI want to thank millions of Mexican women and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410700,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-410672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n