Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum chooses former foreign minister as economy chief

Mexico’s president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum chose an economy minister seen as business friendly to join her cabinet as she tried to calm investors unnerved by her resounding electoral victory earlier this month.

At a brief event on Thursday, Sheinbaum named six cabinet members, emphasising their subject-matter expertise or relevant experience for their roles. Marcelo Ebrard, a former foreign minister and Sheinbaum’s main rival for the presidential nomination earlier this year, was named to run the economy ministry, which is charged with promoting industry, trade and attracting foreign investment.

Ebrard represented Mexico in negotiations during the US presidency of Donald Trump over policies to keep out migrants and a revamp of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“We live in a more protectionist, to some extent more unstable world and the mandate is to navigate the choppy waters,” Ebrard said on Tuesday at the event in a museum in the capital’s historic centre. “Mexico has a lot of conditions in its favour today in the world.”

Sheinbaum has not yet named her choices for other influential cabinet posts, including the interior ministry, security and energy.

Mexico is seen as one of the potential beneficiaries as companies seek to build factories closer to the US, amid rising tensions between Washington and China over trade. Foreign investment has been solid but is not yet booming, and it will be Ebrard’s responsibility to try to capture more of the opportunity.

That will be complicated by a gaping budget deficit, a state-led energy policy and a Sheinbaum-backed plan to overhaul the judiciary by firing some 1,600 judges and replacing them with elected ones.

The peso strengthened 0.6 per cent against the dollar after the cabinet announcement. It is still more than 7 per cent weaker than before the election over worries that the proposed changes and other reforms would remove crucial checks and balances.

Sheinbaum opted for continuity by confirming that Rogelio Ramírez de la O would stay on in the finance role. Foreign minister Alicia Bárcena will also join the new cabinet in charge of the environment ministry.

But throughout the campaign the former climate academic and her team also underlined some differences between herself and her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in her style and background.

The ruling Morena party’s coalition is just two senate seats shy of having a supermajority in both houses of congress in September, which would allow them to push through a set of radical reforms proposed by López Obrador.

Sheinbaum campaigned on a promise to build the “second floor” of her mentor López Obrador’s political movement, and investors and analysts are trying to decipher how much influence he will have in the new government.

Some of her appointments were close allies, such as Ernestina Godoy, the former state attorney from Mexico City, as her top legal adviser. Sheinbaum’s transition team head and former diplomat Juan Ramón de la Fuente will be the next foreign minister. 

López Obrador gave his cabinet members limited room for manoeuvre. By contrast, political experts expect Sheinbaum to cede more control to her team.

“They are all profiles aligned with their posts,” said political analyst Blanca Heredia. “It looks like we’re going to have people with a voice and presence, unlike in the current administration.”