Former Welfare Minister Ariadna Montiel Reyes was elected unopposed on Sunday as president of the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), Mexico’s ruling party.

Montiel’s ascension to leader of the party founded by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador came just days after she resigned as welfare minister, a position she had held since 2022. She replaces Luisa María Alcalde, who stepped down as Morena president to take on the role of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s top legal adviser.

Óscar del Cueto García, a former Welfare Ministry official, was appointed Morena’s finance secretary on Sunday.

The new federal welfare minister is Leticia Ramírez, who served as education minister for two years during López Obrador’s 2018-24 presidency. She now heads up a ministry that distributes some 1 trillion pesos (US $57 billion) annually to Mexicans via the federal government’s various welfare and social programs.

Montiel was elected Morena president at a meeting in Mexico City at which more than 1,800 Morena delegates were in attendance. She takes on the position at a difficult time, as Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya — who is currently on leave — has been accused by prosecutors in the United States of drug trafficking in collusion with the Sinaloa Cartel as well as related weapons offenses. Rocha denies the accusations.

Sinaloa is one of 23 states — including Mexico City — that is currently governed by Morena, which has only been in existence as a political party for 12 years.

In her final speech as Morena president, Alcalde highlighted that the party’s membership increased from 2.5 million to some 12.5 million during her one-and-a-half-year tenure as leader.

“We’re the second largest political party in the world,” she claimed, making an assertion that appeared to be a significant exaggeration.

“[We’re] number one for the participation of women,” Alcalde added.

Montiel: ‘This leadership won’t tolerate corruption in any Morena government’

During her inaugural address as Morena president, Montiel declared that “this leadership won’t tolerate corruption in any Morena government.”

That statement was met with an enthusiastic response from Morena delegates and officials, who broke into a chant of “presidenta, presidenta.”

Con orgullo asumo la presidencia de @PartidoMorenaMx nacimos en la resistencia y con principios claros: no mentir, no robar y nunca traicionar al pueblo.

Respaldamos el trabajo y la honestidad de nuestra presidenta @Claudiashein, porque representa la defensa de la soberanía… pic.twitter.com/v6qgY6cjAd

— Ariadna Montiel Reyes (@A_MontielR) May 3, 2026

Montiel said that there is no place for corrupt individuals in Morena, a party that has attempted to make its fight against the scourge a central part of its identity.

“The National Regeneration Movement arrived to be at the service of the people. For that reason, it’s up to us to guarantee that the representatives of our movement are women and men with honest principles and values and a real commitment to the people,” she said.

Montiel said that people seeking to represent Morena at elections in 2027 must have “impeccable” records.

She also said there is a “permanent offensive against our movement,” a reference to criticism of Morena and the federal government from opposition lawmakers, some media outlets and others. That criticism, Sheinbaum said on Monday, has intensified since the U.S. accusations against Rocha and other Morena politicians, including a federal senator and the mayor of Culicán, came to light last week.

In the face of the “offensive,” Montiel called on the people of Mexico — who support Morena and the federal government in very large numbers — to remain “strong and united” in their backing of “this national project.”

“We are loyal to our principles of not lying, not stealing and never betraying the people of Mexico,” she added. “We were born in resistance and we remain in resistance.”

In remarks directed at opposition politicians and government critics, Montiel said that Morena “rejects the hypocrisy of those who make accusations for political purposes in order to open the door to foreign interference.”

Speaking two weeks after it came to light that U.S. Central Intelligence Agency officers participated in a security operation in Chihuahua without the knowledge or authorization of the Mexican government, she called on Morena members and all Mexicans to support Sheinbaum “today more than ever” amid what she characterized as an increasingly intense threat to Mexico’s sovereignty.

Among other remarks in her 40-minute address, the new Morena president railed against the United States embargo against Cuba, and expressed her solidarity with the Cuban people, who are currently facing increased hardship due to dwindling oil supplies and other factors.

With reports from Reforma, La Jornada and El Financiero