Mexico is set to elect its first female president this weekend, with two leading candidates vying to shatter the highest political glass ceiling in a country with a history of gender violence and inequality.
In Bolivia, the world's most populous Spanish-speaking country with a population of 129 million, ruling party candidate Claudia Scheinbaum and opposition candidate Xochitl Gálvez, both 61, are leading the presidential election.
The only other candidate, Jorge Alvarez Mines, is trailing far behind with just days to go until Sunday's vote.
“This is a big change,” said Guadalupe Correa Cabrera, a professor at George Mason University in the US.
“A woman president would be an inspiration to women in all sectors: economic, political, social and cultural,” she told AFP.
A big factor in Sheinbaum's popularity is President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who is among his closest aides and enjoys an approval rating of over 60 percent but is only allowed to serve one term.
Mr. Scheinbaum, a former Mexico City mayor and scientist, has the support of 55 percent of voters, according to an average of polls compiled by research firm Oraculous.
Galvez, an outspoken senator and businessman with indigenous roots who heads a broad opposition coalition, has an approval rating of 33 percent.
Meineth, 38, of the small Civic Movement party, received just 12% of the vote.
The centrist, who is unlikely to win, resumed campaigning on Saturday after taking a few days off following a stage collapse at one of his rally, killing nine people.
– Cartels, trade and migration –
Mexico's next president will face a range of challenges, including immigration control, a fragile relationship with neighboring United States and criminal violence that has left more than 450,000 people dead and tens of thousands missing since 2006.
In a country where politics, corruption and crime are closely intertwined, a wave of election violence has seen about 30 local candidates killed since September last year.
“The sinister pervasiveness of organized crime and cartels is the toughest issue Scheinbaum will have to address if elected,” said Michael Shifter, a researcher and former president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank.
Whoever wins, experts predict it will likely be business as usual for the drug cartels that control large swaths of the country and smuggle huge amounts of cocaine, fentanyl and other drugs into the United States.
“They're not going to change their attitude just because Mexico has a woman president,” Correa-Cabrera said.
Sheinbaum pledged to continue Lopez Obrador's strategy of attacking crime at its roots, a controversial strategy the left-wing populist has called “hugs, not bullets.”
Galvez, who often talks about his childhood growing up in a poor rural town in central Mexico, has declared that his “embracing of criminals is over” and vowed a tougher response.
Shifter said the complicated relationship between Mexico and the United States will be another big challenge, especially if former President Donald Trump is re-elected in November.
“If Trump returns to the White House, we can expect him to take a tougher stance on sensitive issues such as immigration, trade and drugs that are crucial to the bilateral relationship,” he said.
– The prevalence of femicide –
While Mexican women are becoming increasingly successful in politics and business, gender-based violence remains a major problem in the country, where about 10 women are murdered every day.
Millions of Mexicans have escaped poverty in recent years, but official figures last year showed more than a third still live below the poverty line.
Mexico has the second-largest economy in Latin America, but many people rely on informal work to make a living.
“One of the things that affects us young people the most is work and obviously insecurity,” said Fatima Gonzalez, 20, a vendor in a town on the outskirts of Mexico City who praises Xochitl's “authenticity”.
Correa Cabrera said having a female president would not change the lives of ordinary Mexican women overnight.
“The inequalities that affect women, especially the poorest members of society, are not going to change just because we have a female president who represents the elite and privileged classes,” she said.
Mexicans will not only vote to select a new president, but also members of Congress, several state governors and numerous local officials.
In total, more than 20,000 offices are up for grabs, and roughly 100 million people are registered to vote.
Ricardo Escobar, 20, hopes Scheinbaum's presidency will bring benefits in terms of education and scholarships.
“We've done well under this administration,” he said.
– The Times/AFP
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