Lawfare Archive: Former Ambassador Roberta Jacobson on the Mexico Presidential Election
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 11 January 2026
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
From June 18, 2024: On June 2, Mexico held one of the largest elections in its history and the electorate voted in the country's first women, and Jewish, president, Claudia Sheinbaum. Sheinbaum was endorsed by outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), who critics charge as pushing a series of anti-democratic policies including a substantial judicial overhaul.
To discuss this historic election and what President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum may do in office, Lawfare Associate Editor for Communications Anna Hickey sat down with former United States Ambassador Roberta Jacobson. They discussed the issues voters were concerned about, political violence by cartels plaguing the country, and whether Sheinbaum will follow AMLO's trajectory as a populist or chart her own path.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Isabella Royo, Internet Lawfare, with an episode from the Lawfare Archive for January 11, 2006. |
| 0:16.0 | On January 3rd, U.S. troops captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and First Lady Celia Flores in Caracas and transported them to the United States, where they have been indicted in the Southern District of New York on four counts related to drug trafficking and illegal weapons possession. |
| 0:31.4 | In a statement the day after the raid, President Trump asserted that drugs are still entering the United States from cartels in several Latin American countries, and specifically that drugs are, quote, pouring through Mexico, and we're |
| 0:41.8 | going to have to do something, end quote. |
| 0:44.9 | Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum responded by reiterating her commitment to security |
| 0:49.2 | cooperation with the U.S. against cartels, while also emphasizing Mexico's sovereignty |
| 0:53.0 | and territorial integrity. |
| 0:55.1 | For today's archive, I chose an episode from June 18, 2024, in which Anna Hickey sat down with |
| 1:00.7 | former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Roberta Jacobson, to discuss the election of President |
| 1:05.0 | Scheinbaum, the major issues she campaigned on, how she would approach combating Mexico's |
| 1:09.6 | persistent cartel violence, and more. |
| 1:15.6 | It's the Lawfare podcast. I'm Anna Hickey, Associate Editor of Communications at Lawfare, with Roberta Jacobson, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico. |
| 1:29.8 | What is she going to announce on security, if anything? And something she may not announce for months, |
| 1:36.9 | right? Do you want to announce on security before you know who's in the White House? Because that's |
| 1:41.8 | your security partner? Maybe not. Maybe she holds on that. |
| 1:45.3 | Or maybe there's pressure to do something because that was such an important issue for people. |
| 1:50.5 | Today, we're talking about the recent Mexican presidential election and what the election of |
| 1:55.0 | President-elect Claudia Scheinbaum may mean for democracy in Mexico. So today you're joining |
| 2:00.5 | us to talk about the recent elections |
| 2:02.1 | that were in Mexico. And first I just want to ask, you know, who were people voting for? |
| 2:05.9 | What were the offices that were up for election that day? Yeah, it's a great question because this |
| 2:11.5 | turns out to have been the largest elections that Mexico has ever held. Over 20,000 offices were up for election, from president |
... |
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