Mexico's ruling party elects new leader to shape post-Lopez Obrador era

Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA

22/09/2024 22:45

By Diego Oré
       MEXICO CITY, Sept 22 (Reuters) - 
    Mexico's ruling Morena party on Sunday elected Interior
Secretary Luisa Maria Alcalde as its new leader and awarded the
son of outgoing Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador a
high-ranking position.
  
    Alcalde, a 37-year-old lawyer who hails from a storied
Mexican political family, will be tasked with helping
consolidate disparate wings of the Morena movement without its
founder, Lopez Obrador, who has been a towering figure in
Mexican politics in recent years.
    Since Lopez Obrador founded Morena in 2011, the party has
soared in popularity to become an electoral juggernaut, drawing
comparisons with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)
that ruled Mexico for seven decades before the return of
democracy in 2000. Morena now governs 23 of the country's 32
states and has large majorities in both chambers of Congress.
    Alcalde, a staunch Lopez Obrador ally, was a congresswoman
from 2013 to 2015, Labor Secretary from 2018 to June 2023, and
has since held the Interior portfolio, considered one of the
most important political posts in the country.
    "I'm not going to fail you," Alcalde told Morena supporters
after being elected.
        Mexico's President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum said on X
afterwards that she was convinced "Morena's new management will
do a great job."
  
        "They will know how to guide our movement with
principles and unity. Many congratulations. We continue making
history," Sheinbaum added.
  
    Lopez Obrador's son, Andres Manuel Lopez Beltran, who had
long been reputed to wield influence in the party, was elected
as the Secretary of Organization.
    Although López Obrador separated himself from the leadership
of Morena in 2017 to run for the presidency of Mexico in the
2018 elections, analysts maintain that the party has always been
subordinate to the ruler.
    The challenge for Morena will be to administer and exercise
"power on its own without the shelter and guidance of the
leadership of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, whose star still
shines but is on the way to extinction," said political analyst
Rene Delgado.
    Alcalde was one of the founders of Morena since its
formation as a civil association in 2011, when she served as
youth coordinator. Her mother and senior Morena politician,
Bertha Luján, has been a long-time Lopez Obrador ally, while her
sister Bertha Alcalde has also held various public positions.

 (Writing by Drazen Jorgic; editing by Diane Craft)
 ((drazen.jorgic@tr.com; Reuters Messaging:
drazen.jorgic.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))