Two years after taking office, Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum has an approval rating of 70%, according to a new poll.
Three-quarters of women polled by the newspaper El Financiero on December 4 and 5 said they approved of the mayor’s performance while 64% of men said the same.
Sheinbaum’s net approval rating of 70% is higher than those of her three most recent predecessors after the same amount of time in office.
President López Obrador (2000-2005), Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard (2006-2012) and federal Senator Miguel Ángel Mancera (2012-2018) had approval ratings of 67%, 57% and 32%, respectively, two years into their terms as mayor.
Sheinbaum, a close ally of the president, had a 72% approval rating at the start of the year, according to El Financiero, but slumped to 55% in February and remained at that level of support in March. Her rating was at 60% or above every other month of the year expect December when it rose five points to 70%.
The 600 respondents to the most recent poll were asked to assess the Mexico City government’s performance in four different areas: responding to the coronavirus pandemic, public transit, public security and managing the economy.
Half of those polled said that Sheinbaum’s government is responding very well or well to the pandemic while 27% said that it is dealing with the coronavirus badly or very badly. Just over one in five respondents said that the pandemic response is neither good nor bad.
The result was the best for the government in the four different areas. Unlike López Obrador, Sheinbaum, a scientist by training, has been a strong advocate for the use of face masks, and has led the largest Covid-19 testing program in the country.
The mayor, who tested positive for the coronavirus in October, has also kept citizens well informed about the measures the government is taking to combat the spread of the virus, frequently fronting virtual press conferences even while self isolating.
Just over a third of poll respondents – 37% – said the government is performing very well or well in the area of public transit, while 28% said the opposite.
Only 24% of those polled said that the government is doing a very good or good job on public security while more than double that percentage – 53% – said the opposite.
Mexico City recorded almost 1,000 intentional homicides in the first 10 months of the year, including murders of a young girl and two young boys that shocked residents of the capital.
InSight Crime, a foundation dedicated to the study of organized crime in Latin America, said in late October that there were signs that the Jalisco New Generation Cartel – generally considered Mexico’s most dangerous and violent criminal organization – was expanding its presence in the capital.
The Mexico City government was also rated poorly for its management of the economy. Just 22% of respondents said that it is doing very well or well in the area while 46% said the opposite.
However, Sheinbaum has presented plans to reactivate economic growth and job creation amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Still, many residents of Mexico City are struggling financially due to the economic downturn.
Almost half of poll respondents – 48% – said their families’ finances had taken a turn for the worse over the past three months while only 9% said they had improved. Almost a quarter – 23% – said that they had lost their job or source of income completely, while 41% said their finances had neither improved nor worsened.
Just over seven in 10 of those polled said they believed Mexico City’s overall economic situation had deteriorated in recent months while 57% said that insecurity had worsened.
Source: El Financiero (sp)
