Mexicans spray-painted "Jewish whore" on the National Palace gates in Mexico, following widespread discontent with Claudia Sheinbaum, the country's female Jewish president.

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Demonstrators spray-painted antisemitic graffiti on the presidential palace and painted crossed-out Stars of David. Some documented inscriptions stated "Jewish bi*ch." Thousands of demonstrators marched through the streets of Mexico City, and in the central plaza facing the presidential palace, violent confrontations erupted when protesters attempted to breach security barriers and enter President Claudia Sheinbaum's residence. Police responded with tear gas, stun grenades, and clubs.

The country's authorities reported 100 police officers were wounded in the confrontations, and 40 required hospital evacuation. Twenty civilians were wounded, and 20 others were arrested.

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Additional demonstrations occurred simultaneously throughout Mexico, primarily in Michoacán in the country's west, where Urápan Mayor Carlos Manzo was assassinated on November 1. Manzo was shot to death at a public Day of the Dead event, after waging a campaign against drug cartels in the city. His supporters came to the Mexico City demonstration wearing straw hats – the symbol the deceased mayor adopted.

Manzo, 40, was a former legislator from the ruling leftist party Morena, but separated from it and competed as an independent for Urápan's mayorship. He won the election in June 2024 with 66% of the votes, becoming Urápan's first independent mayor. Manzo embraced a "confrontation" strategy with the drug cartels extorting the region's farmers.

"He was murdered because he dared to confront the criminals and sent police to the mountains to fight them," one protester told Associated Press. Some demonstrators in Mexico City directed their fury toward the president's party, chanting, "Morena out." Others demanded the state operate more decisively against crime and violence, shouting "Carlos didn't die – the government killed him."

Video: Demonstrations in Mexico City

A group identifying itself as "Gen Z Mexico," which organized the demonstration calls, released a manifesto on social media declaring it belongs to no party and represents young Mexicans exhausted by violence, corruption, and power abuse.

Mexico is simply the latest in an extensive line of Global South nations where protests labeled "Gen Z protests" have exploded, referring to demonstrators born primarily after 1997. Such demonstrations have led to government overthrows in Nepal and Madagascar this year, as well as in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in recent years. Substantial Gen Z protests also occurred in Indonesia, Peru, Morocco, Kenya, and the Philippines.

President Sheinbaum, who assumed office in October 2024 after succeeding Andrés Manuel López Obrador from the Morena party, still enjoys elevated approval ratings of approximately 70%, but has received criticism regarding her security policies following the assassinations of prominent figures, including Manzo's.

The government questioned the motivations behind the demonstration, arguing that it was largely organized by the right-wing opposition and amplified by bots on social media.

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In 2008, analysts viewed the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States as a sign of the US entering a "post-racial" era, after centuries of dealing with slavery and anti-black laws and discrimination. In 2006, Bolivia, one of the world's only indigenous-plurality countries, elected Evo Morales, an Aymara coca grower as president, spurring talk of a "second founding" for indigenous rights in Bolivia in Latin America.

Video: Celebrations following Mexico's elections / Reuters

Now that Mexico has just elected a Jewish president, technocrat, scientist, and former mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, will her election help address the antisemitism problem in the country and the region?

Latin America is home to approximately 500,000 Jews, including nearly 60,000 in Mexico alone (out of 130 million people).

Though Sheinbaum identifies as a secular Jew like most Mexican Jews, her election could mean a lot for the future of Jews within Latin America. To understand the significance of Sheinbaum's election, we must first look at the scale of antisemitism facing Latin America.

Sheinbaum's ancestry has been attacked, claiming she has dual allegiance and that she may not be Mexican. Antisemitic attacks in Mexico have risen significantly since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas.

Vicente Fox, Mexico's former president, accused Sheinbaum, the daughter of Jewish parents, of being "a Jew and foreigner at the same time," reposting a meme that called Sheinbaum a "Bulgarian Jew."

Getty ImagesClaudia Sheinbaum waves at supporters, June 3, 2024 in Mexico City, Mexico (Manuel Velasquez/Getty Images)Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the outgoing Mexican president, has made comparisons between Israel and the Nazis, even accusing Jewish members of the Mexican opposition of supporting "Hitlerism." AMLO, as he is more commonly known, had even floated the idea of cutting diplomatic ties with Israel altogether, an idea that Bolivia, Chile, and Honduras and Colombia followed through on.

In Mexico, José Vasconselos, one of the founding philosophers of modern Mexico and leaders of the "cosmic race" movement, held deeply antisemitic views. In an op-ed from December by Francisco Ruiz Quirrín, a columnist for the ultra-conservative weekly Primera Plana, he warned, in connection with a Sheinbaum victory, that "the Jewish community is willing to exert whatever pressure is necessary to influence one of its own over any political commitment."

Deeply held public antisemitism is not a unique feature of Mexican politics and society, but of Latin America altogether.

In recent events across Latin America, antisemitism has manifested in various disturbing ways. In Peru, right-wing extremists targeted a prominent Jewish journalist by shouting antisemitic slurs outside his home and displaying posters depicting rats with bags of money. Meanwhile, in Nicaragua, Jewish cemeteries have been desecrated and vandalized.

Argentina's new president, Javier Milei, who professes support for Jewish people and Israel, appointed Rodolfo Barra as the lead prosecutor. Barra was previously a member of a right-wing group responsible for numerous antisemitic acts, including attacks on synagogues, a violent riot in a Jewish neighborhood, and the murder of a Jewish lawyer. Despite his history, he will now oversee the prosecution of antisemitism in Argentina.

APSupporters of ruling party presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum celebrate at the Zocalo, Mexico City's main square, June 3, 2024 (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)Political leaders across nearly all Latin American countries perpetuate myths about Jewish control over the media, politics, and the economy. Among the supporters of these antisemitic narratives are José Antonio Kast, the son of a Nazi SS lieutenant and a leading candidate in Chile's presidential race, and Daniel Jadue, the mayor of Recoleta with ties to the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Additionally, several politicians and groups linked to former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro have propagated antisemitic conspiracies and adopted neo-Nazi symbols.

Historically, this pervasive antisemitism has often escalated to violence. In 1992, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad bombed the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, followed by the AMIA (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina) Jewish community center in 1994, resulting in 114 deaths. In 2009, armed vandals attacked Venezuela's oldest synagogue as a protest against Israel, with the Chávez government swiftly expressing support for the attackers rather than protecting its Jewish citizens.

Iran plays a significant role in supporting antisemitic activities in the region, regularly funding operations against Jewish communities. Over the past five years, Iran has signed multiple security agreements with Latin American governments and supports terrorist organizations, including Hezbollah, in attacking Jews and Israelis in Latin America. As a result, Israeli diplomats and intelligence operatives in the region frequently face dangerous and sometimes lethal assaults.

Following the October 7th attacks, antisemitic rhetoric intensified. Colombian President Gustavo Petro likened Israel's treatment of Gaza to the Nazis' actions in the Warsaw Ghetto. Brazil's President Lula compared Israeli policies towards Palestine to a "new Holocaust," claiming Israelis are the new Nazis. Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya declared that anyone supporting Israel is not human. Additionally, Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro regularly broadcasts dehumanizing rants against Jews and Zionists on national television.

Commonly held antisemitic and ignorant tropes about Jews are also a problem.

Recent polling conducted in Uruguay, Mexico, and other Latin American countries tells us that Jews are seeing a rise in overt antisemitism from their communities and that antisemitic beliefs are commonly held. Conspiracy theories about Jewish global domination or Jewish plots for war are also frequently held by regular people. As a result, an overwhelming majority of Jews in Latin America are fearful for their lives. According to the Anti-Defamation League, 24 percent of Mexicans openly discriminate against Jews or hold antisemitic beliefs, with an average of 33% for all of Latin America.

Hopefully, Sheinbaum can help educate Mexicans and Latin Americans about Jewish life and culture and make antisemitism more socially unacceptable. Sheinbaum could also use her new platform to elevate Jewish voices, educate the public (and leaders), and tackle antisemitism head-on.

That power, however, remains in her hands.

Joseph Bouchard is a freelance journalist and analyst covering geopolitics in the Americas, with reporting experience in Bolivia, Colombia, and Brazil. His articles have appeared in The Diplomat, Mongabay, Le Devoir, La Razón, The Jerusalem Post, and Brazilian Report.

The post Will Mexico having a Jewish president fix antisemitism in Latin America? appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Claudia Sheinbaum won a landslide victory to become Mexico's first female president, inheriting the project of her mentor and outgoing leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador whose popularity among the poor helped drive her triumph.

Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, won the presidency with between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote, according to a rapid sample count by Mexico's electoral authority. That is set to be the highest vote tally percentage in Mexico's democratic history.

Video: Sheinbaum becomes Mexico's first female president / Reuters

The ruling coalition was also on track for a possible two-thirds super majority in both houses of Congress which would allow the coalition to pass constitutional reforms without opposition support, according to the range of results given by the electoral authority.

Opposition candidate Xochitl Galvez took between 26.6% and 28.6% of the vote, preliminary results showed, and Sheinbaum said Galvez had called her to concede. "For the first time in the 200 years of the republic I will become the first woman president of Mexico," Sheinbaum told supporters to loud cheers of "president, president." Victory for Sheinbaum is a major step for Mexico, a country known for its macho culture and home to the world's second biggest Roman Catholic population, which for years pushed more traditional values and roles for women. Sheinbaum is the first woman to win a general election in the United States, Mexico or Canada. "I never imagined that one day I would vote for a woman," said 87-year-old Edelmira Montiel, a Sheinbaum supporter in Mexico's smallest state Tlaxcala. "Before we couldn't even vote, and when you could, it was to vote for the person your husband told you to vote for. Thank God that has changed and I get to live it," Montiel added.

Sheinbaum has a complicated path ahead. She must balance promises to increase popular welfare policies while inheriting a hefty budget deficit and low economic growth. After preliminary results were announced, she told supporters her government would be fiscally responsible and respect the autonomy of the central bank.

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