LatinNews Daily - 26 April 2024

*The presidential candidate for Mexico’s ruling left-wing Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena), Claudia Sheinbaum, has pledged to lift 7.5m people out of extreme poverty if she wins the country’s elections on 2 June. She said that, in order to do so, existing social programmes would be strengthened and new ones created, the minimum wage would be increased, and social security guaranteed. Speaking at a press conference in Tuxpan municipality, Veracruz state, she said “the idea is that there will be no extreme poverty in our country, or if not, that it should be substantially reduced”. According to the latest poll from local consultancies Grupo de Economistas Asociados (GEA) and Investigaciones Sociales Aplicadas (ISA) published on 25 April, Sheinbaum is still Mexico’s leading presidential candidate with 49% of those polled saying they would vote for her, giving her a 15-point lead over the Xóchitl Gálvez, the candidate for the main opposition coalition Fuerza y Corazón por México.