By Alexandra Sharp
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Mexico’s historic presidential election, rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and the Maldives proposing a travel ban on Israelis.
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A Woman at the Helm
Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum celebrates winning the country’s presidential election in Mexico City on June 3.Carl de Souza/AFP via Getty Images
Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum won Mexico’s presidential election on Sunday, becoming the first woman and first person from a Jewish background to be elected president of the overwhelmingly Catholic country. The 61-year-old former climate scientist secured at least 58.3 percent of the vote versus former Sen. Xóchitl Gálvez’s 26.6 percent, according to preliminary results.
“I do not arrive alone. We all arrived, Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum won Mexico’s presidential election on Sunday, beco with our heroines who gave us our homeland, with our ancestors, our mothers, our daughters, and our granddaughters,” Sheinbaum said in her victory speech. She will take office in October.
Sunday’s vote was Mexico’s largest election in its 200-year history. Around 70,000 candidates vied for more than 20,000 legislative, mayoral, and gubernatorial positions. And nearly 100 million people were registered to vote, though turnout appeared to be slightly lower than in past years.
Sheinbaum’s victory demonstrates widespread public support for her political mentor, outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and their Morena party. While campaigning, Sheinbaum promised to continue many of López Obrador’s policies, including his more controversial plans. These include backing proposed constitutional changes that the opposition says would undermine democratic institutions and focusing on social welfare programs to address the underlying causes of rampant cartel violence instead of targeting the gangs themselves.
“In terms of the polls, the most important issue is security,” Luis Rubio, an expert in Mexican politics, told FP’s Christina Lu. Sheinbaum has specifically suggested lowering the rates of impunity and building up the national guard to counter cartel activity. Such violence has killed at least 34 people campaigning for public office since last summer, and more people have been murdered or gone missing during López Obrador’s six-year term than during any other Mexican president’s tenure.
Sheinbaum has also said she would reevaluate how the nation’s military is involved in public projects after López Obrador granted the armed forces new responsibilities, including running airports. She has advocated for continuing a universal pension plan for older adults. She aims to create a program that pays young people to seek out apprenticeships, a continuation of López Obrador’s policy. And she has promised “good relations” with whoever becomes the United States’ next leader, whether that be U.S. President Joe Biden or former U.S. President Donald Trump. Mexico City is Washington’s largest trading partner.
But Sheinbaum is not a carbon copy of her predecessor, as some critics suggest. Her background in science separates her from López Obrador, evident in Sheinbaum choosing to expand COVID-19 testing, limit business operating hours, and practice social distancing while mayor of Mexico City despite López Obrador downplaying the virus.
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Today’s Most Read
The World This Week
Tuesday, June 4: India announces its general election results.
Slovenia considers a resolution recognizing Palestinian statehood.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visits Cambodia.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif begins a five-day trip in China.
Wednesday, June 5: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg begins a two-day visit in Finland.
Thursday, June 6: World leaders, including Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron, attend a memorial service in Normandy, France, for the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
The European Parliament begins its four-day general election.
The U.N. General Assembly elects a new session leader.
Friday, June 7: Ireland holds local elections.
Sunday, June 9: Bulgaria and Belgium hold parliamentary elections.
Monday, June 10: Foreign ministers with the so-called BRICS summit convene in Russia.
What We’re Following
Retaliatory actions. South Korea announced on Monday that it plans to suspend a 2018 rapprochement deal with North Korea after Pyongyang sent roughly 1,000 balloons carrying trash and excrement over the border. North Korea’s dayslong campaign began last Tuesday in response to South Korean citizens sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets as well as USBs carrying K-pop songs and Korean dramas to its northern neighbor.
Seoul warned of “unbearable” retaliatory steps against Pyongyang on Sunday. Soon after, North Korea announced that it would stop the smelly deliveries. But South Korea pushed ahead with a response. Suspending the rapprochement deal will allow Seoul to resume military drills near the border and take effective, immediate responses to North Korean provocations, according to the country’s presidential National Security Council, which announced the move. South Korean state officials are expected to approve the plan on Tuesday.
Seoul partially suspended the agreement last year after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un launched a spy satellite into orbit. The National Security Council said on Monday that it will suspend the deal “until mutual trust between the two Koreas is restored.”
Barring travel. Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu agreed on Sunday to impose a travel ban on Israeli passport-holders following a recommendation from the cabinet. The country will amend laws to prevent Israeli travelers from entering the country—establishing a subcommittee to oversee the process—and it will appoint a special envoy to assess Palestinians’ needs and launch a fundraising campaign with the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees. The Israeli Foreign Ministry urged all citizens to avoid traveling to the country or leave it if already there. Nearly 11,000 Israelis traveled to the Maldives last year.
Cease-fire deal dispute. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears hesitant to accept a U.S.-backed framework to end the war. The three-phase deal, which Biden characterized as an Israeli proposal in a speech laying out its details last Friday, would see displaced Palestinians return to their homes, the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from populated areas of Gaza, a full cease-fire on both sides, the release of all Hamas-held hostages as well as some Palestinian prisoners, and the creation of a reconstruction plan for Gaza.
However, Israeli officials said on Monday that Biden’s description of the deal was “not accurate.” Netanyahu indicated that Hamas’s total destruction was “part of the proposal” and Israeli officials said he never agreed to fully remove Israeli troops from the enclave nor accept a permanent cease-fire so long as Hamas remains in power. They also disputed the characterization of it as an Israeli proposal, saying it was instead a proposal that had been put forward by mediators to which Israel had made amendments. A Hamas official said on Friday after Biden’s speech that the group viewed the president’s remarks “positively,” but Hamas has yet to formally respond to the proposal.
Divisive foreign agents law. Georgia’s parliamentary speaker signed a controversial “foreign agents” bill into law on Monday after over a month of widespread protests and international warnings. The legislation requires all nongovernmental organizations and media outlets that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to register as “agents of foreign influence.” Those that fail to do so could be fined.
Opponents of the law have compared it to a similar foreign agents policy in Russia that President Vladimir Putin has used to crush political dissent. And Western nations have warned Tbilisi that passing the foreign agents legislation could hurt its bid to join the European Union. Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili vetoed the bill last month, but lawmakers with the majority Georgian Dream party—led by Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze—overruled her action.
Odds and Ends
Time to add Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon to your Spotify queue. On Sunday, China successfully landed its second lunar mission on the far side of Earth’s closest neighbor. Beijing hopes the mission, named Chang’e-6 after the Chinese moon goddess, will help collect samples of the moon’s mysterious backside as well as demonstrate the country’s space ambitions. China is the only nation to have made the trip thus far.
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