Sheinbaum at the Zócalo: ‘Mexicans do not want interference, interventionism or violation of our territoriality’
The Mexican president enters the third year of her term with a mass rally at the capital’s giant square, where she alluded to growing pressure from the US under the guise of fighting narcoterrorism
Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, addressed a massive crowd this Sunday at the emblematic Zócalo square in Mexico City, just a few days before the start of her third year in office. On the eve of the 2027 midterm elections, the president delivered a speech steeped in historical references to Mexico’s struggles for independence and sovereignty, and an allusion to growing pressures from the United States under the guise of fighting “narcoterrorism.”
“Mexicans do not want interference, interventionism or violation of our territoriality,” the president said before thousands of supporters gathered at the giant square.
Every president faces a kind of referendum at the midterm elections. But few leaders face challenges like Sheinbaum’s: she must govern domestically as head of state while watching, peripherally, the conflicts that threaten her administration — internally, from the security and violence crisis to the power struggles within her party, Morena, which is wracked by a fierce fight over elective posts next year; and externally, mainly from pressures and threats from the United States, which will also hold midterm elections this year.
Sheinbaum has reached the midpoint of her term with one of the highest presidential approval ratings in Mexico’s history, with seven out of ten Mexicans supporting her administration. The president, the first woman to hold the country’s executive office, has relied on that popularity to send Donald Trump’s government a message of unity and national resistance against the interventionist impulses of a president determined to expand U.S. influence beyond its borders.
The Mexican president has used that popular support, and Morena’s majority in both chambers of Congress, to take delicate decisions with significant political consequences. Perhaps the most striking show of resolve came when she ordered the removal of former Sinaloa governor Rubén Rocha — a member of her own party — and his circle of aides after prolonged political wear following narcotics trafficking accusations filed against him by Washington in U.S. courts.
Sheinbaum is riding a triumphalist wave at home with a strengthening economy, falling poverty levels and stabilized insecurity, while keeping an eye on the rise of the far right in the region. On this issue, the president views with concern the alliances between foreign think tanks and Mexico’s weakened opposition parties.
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