President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum announced Thursday that former Supreme Court chief justice Arturo Zaldívar and current Education Minister Leticia Ramírez will be part of her expanded cabinet after she takes office on Oct. 1.
Sheinbaum appointed Zaldívar as general coordinator of policy and government and Ramírez as general coordinator of inter-governmental affairs and social participation.
Zaldívar, who resigned from the Supreme Court last November to join Sheinbaum’s campaign team, will “monitor” the progress of the constitutional reform proposals, “especially the reform to the judicial power,” the president-elect said during a press conference at her Mexico City “transition house.”
“… Remember there are 18 constitutional reforms,” she said, referring to the proposals submitted to Congress by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in February.
“And [there will be] other reforms that we will present in due course. Providing thorough follow-up will be essential,” said Sheinbaum, who won the June 2 presidential election in a landslide.
She highlighted that Zaldívar is a constitutional lawyer and has a doctorate in law from the National Autonomous University. “He has a very extensive résumé,” Sheinbaum said.
She said that Ramírez will focus on a range of tasks including liaison with citizens and monitoring the progress of “strategic projects” in collaboration with Lázaro Cárdenas Batel, who will be Sheinbaum’s chief of staff.
Sheinbaum declared that she was “extremely happy” that Ramírez had accepted her offer to join her team. Prior to becoming education minister in August 2022, Ramírez was director of citizen attention in the office of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Both she and Zaldívar will work from Presidencia, as the president’s office is known, in their new roles.
Sheinbaum also announced Thursday that Carlos Augusto Morales López will be her personal secretary. He previously served as Sheinbaum’s personal secretary when she was mayor of Mexico City between 2018 and 2023.
Zaldívar pledges to work with ‘tenacity and loyalty to Mexico’
Zaldívar, chief justice between 2019 and 2022, said he will work closely with Cárdenas, incoming interior minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez and Ernestina Godoy, who will be Sheinbaum’s chief legal advisor.
“I will work with tenacity, with loyalty to Mexico and the president and I’m sure we will be able to provide results that are tangible in the lives of Mexicans,” he said.
“Have no doubt president that I will put all my efforts … into serving you and serving in your project,” Zaldívar said. A close ally of López Obrador, he regularly favored the current government on rulings as a Supreme Court justice.
In his new role, he will be aiming to help guide one of López Obrador’s most controversial proposals through Congress.
The judicial reform proposal — which seeks to allow citizens to directly elect Supreme Court justices and other judges, among other objectives — will be considered by recently-elected lawmakers after they assume their positions on Sept. 1.
A coalition led by the ruling Morena party will have a supermajority in the lower house of Congress, allowing it to approve constitutional reform proposals without the need to court opposition support, but it will need a few additional votes to get such proposals through the Senate.
Sheinbaum has pledged there will be “broad consultation” on the judicial reform proposal before it is considered by the new Congress.
Ramírez: ‘Well-being’ of the Mexican people comes first
Ramírez said that joining the team of Mexico’s first female president is a “great commitment.” However, she added that she would assume her position “with happiness and the conviction to always put the well-being of the people first.”
Sheinbaum has committed to maintaining and expanding the current government’s welfare and social programs, and says that “shared prosperity” will be a “central axis” of her government.
Ramírez said that over a period of almost 30 years, López Obrador taught her that “when you work for the good of the people, no task is impossible.”
Sheinbaum’s cabinet appointees so far
Sheinbaum has appointed 10 women and 10 men to her “legal” or core cabinet. The only ministerial appointments she has not yet made are military ones, namely the minister of national defense and minister of the navy.
The appointees to date are:
- Chief of Staff: Lázaro Cárdenas Batel
- Interior Minister: Rosa Icela Rodríguez
- Security Minister: Omar García Harfuch
- Education Minister: Mario Delgado
- Welfare Minister: Ariadna Montiel Reyes
- Economy Minister: Marcelo Ebrard
- Environment and Natural Resources Minister: Alicia Bárcena
- Finance Minister: Rogelio Ramírez de la O
- Minister for Science, Humanities, Technology and Innovation: Rosaura Ruiz
- Foreign Affairs Minister: Juan Ramón de la Fuente
- Legal Counsel to the President: Ernestina Godoy
- Agriculture and Rural Development Minister: Julio Berdegué
- Energy Minister: Luz Elena González Escobar
- Health Minister: David Kershenobich Stalnikowitz
- Public Administration Minister: Raquel Buenrostro Sánchez
- Infrastructure, Communications and Transport Minister: Jesús Antonio Esteva Medina
- Agrarian, Land and Urban Development Minister: Edna Elena Vega Rangel
- Labor and Social Welfare Minister: Marath Bolaños López
- Culture Minister: Claudia Curiel de Icaza
- Tourism Minister: Josefina Rodríguez Zamora
Sheinbaum’s expanded cabinet
The expanded cabinet traditionally includes all members of the legal cabinet as well as the heads of various government agencies and state-owned companies. In the Sheinbaum administration, Zaldívar and Ramírez will also join the expanded cabinet, known in Spanish as the gabinete ampliado.
Sheinbaum announced last week that the director of the Mexican Social Security Institute, Zoé Robledo, will remain in his position after she is sworn in on Oct. 1.
She has not yet announced who will head up other key government entities, including the Federal Electricity Commission, the state oil company Pemex and the National Water Commission.
