“Today we say it with certainty and without fear of being wrong, history and the people have judged him: Andrés Manuel López Obrador, one of the greats,” said the president in her first speech to the nation.
Sheinbaum highlighted López Obrador as the one who “began and ends his mandate backed by most love from his people” and asserted that millions see him as the best president of Mexico, who began “the peaceful revolution of the fourth transformation of public life in Mexico.”
“You have asked us on several occasions – she said – not to unveil busts, nor to name streets, avenues, neighborhoods or colonies after you, nor to build monuments or make great tributes to you.
“The truth is that it is not necessary, because you will always be where only those who fight during all their lives reside, those who do not give up, those who return hope and joy, you will always be in the hearts of the people of Mexico,” she asserted.
Sheimbaun indicated that López Obrador is retiring from public life, to continue fighting from another trench, to write about what he has maintained since his first days, when he worked with the Chontal Maya: that the origin of Mexico’s cultural greatness lies in the great civilizations that lived on this land centuries before the Spanish invasion.
“It is not a coincidence, but it comes in harmony with history, that yesterday the reform of the constitution was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation, which grants full rights to indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples,” she said.
“Your latest book is titled “Thank you”, and today we return the gratitude. Deep thanks, thank you, thank you forever. It has been an honor to fight with you. Farewell, brother, friend, companion, Andrés Manuel López Obrador,” she exclaimed.
Sheinbaum took office Tuesday, as the first female president in the history of Mexico, during a ceremony held in the Congress of the Union.
In the session, she took the established oath and received from the hands of the president of Congress, Ifigenia Martínez, the presidential sash, previously delivered by the outgoing president, López Obrador.
The first woman to hold the high office in Mexico obtained an overwhelming victory in the elections of June 2, in which she surpassed 35.9 million votes and became the most voted candidate in the recent history of the country, with a wide advantage over her rivals.
Sheinbaum declares herself the continuator of the transformative, humanist and social justice project led by López Obrador and which, among other achievements, reduced poverty and inequality in the nation.
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