a recap of Claudia Sheinbaum’s daily press

Thursday, October 31 is the 31st day of the presidency of Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo and the last day of the first month as Mexico’s first female president.

As her predecessor and political mentor Andrés Manuel López Obrador did throughout his six-year term, the 62-year-old former Mexico City mayor is in front of the press every morning of the week at the National Palace in the historic center of Mexico City.

Sheinbaum’s morning press conference, or morningThursday was his 22nd as president. Here’s a quick recap of some key parts of this morning’s presser, a throwback of sorts to an earlier Mexico News Daily series where we documented the former president’s press conferences.

A new model of drug procurement

Deputy Minister of Health Eduardo Clark García outlined the new government model for purchasing drugs for Mexico’s public health system (read the MND report here).

Sheinbaum said the government will spend about 130 billion pesos ($6.5 billion) annually on medicine and medical supplies.

There will be “transparency” and “zero corruption” in the drug procurement process, Sheinbaum promised.

Sheinbaum defends “constitutional supremacy” reform.

The president expressed support for the “constitutional supremacy” reform that was approved by the Senate last week and the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday (read the MND report here) and has already been ratified by enough states to become law.

Constitutional reform will prevent legal challenges to constitutional amendments that have been approved by Congress and ratified by most state legislatures.

“The opposition talked about this issue of constitutional supremacy as if it were something new or something bad,” Sheinbaum said at Thursday’s news conference.

“All of us who study, even if we haven’t studied law, know that the constitution is the ultimate law,” she said.

“Constitutional supremacy” reform, Sheinbaum argued, simply reinforces that the constitution is the supreme law of the land.

“We will support Cuba for humanitarian reasons”

Sheinbaum was asked about Mexico’s decision to send 400,000 barrels of oil to Cubawhich recently suffered a nationwide blackout.

“We will support Cuba for humanitarian reasons. And besides, Mexico was never in favor of the blockade,” she said, referring to the US embargo against the Caribbean island nation that was led by Communist Party of Cuba for about six decades.

“Just to put it into perspective,” Sheinbaum said, 400,000 barrels of oil “isn’t even a day’s production,” given that “Mexico produces 1.6 to 1.8 million barrels a day.” .

“… Even if there is criticism, we will support (Cuba) also for humanitarian reasons,” she said.

Economic growth in the third quarter

“It has exceeded all expectations,” Sheinbaum said of the 1.5% annual growth rate for the Mexican economy in the third quarter of 2024 (read the MND report here).

“… They said GDP would not grow in that quarter. Well, it’s up 1.5 percent,” she said.

Sheinbaum will attend the G20 summit in Brazil

The president told reporters Thursday morning that he will attend the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, which takes place Nov. 18-19.

It will be Sheinbaum’s first foreign trip as president.

López Obrador did not attend any G20 meetings during his presidency and he was largely absent from the world stage during his six-year tenurealthough went to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Summit. in San Francisco last year.

By Mexico News Daily Chief Staff Writer Peter Davies ((email protected))

* This is MND’s first “Sheinbaum mañanera brief,” but look for more in this series soon. (The president will not hold a morning news conference Friday because of the annual Day of the Dead holiday.)