Mexico's ruling party elects new leader to shape post-Lopez Obrador era

By Diego Oré

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's ruling Morena party on Sunday elected Interior Secretary Luisa Maria Alcalde as its new leader and awarded the son of outgoing Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador a high-ranking position.

Alcalde, a 37-year-old lawyer who hails from a storied Mexican political family, will be tasked with helping consolidate disparate wings of the Morena movement without its founder, Lopez Obrador, who has been a towering figure in Mexican politics in recent years.

Since Lopez Obrador founded Morena in 2011, the party has soared in popularity to become an electoral juggernaut, drawing comparisons with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) that ruled Mexico for seven decades before the return of democracy in 2000. Morena now governs 23 of the country's 32 states and has large majorities in both chambers of Congress.

Alcalde, a staunch Lopez Obrador ally, was a congresswoman from 2013 to 2015, Labor Secretary from 2018 to June 2023, and has since held the Interior portfolio, considered one of the most important political posts in the country.

"I'm not going to fail you," Alcalde told Morena supporters after being elected.

Mexico's President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum said on X afterwards that she was convinced "Morena's new management will do a great job."

"They will know how to guide our movement with principles and unity. Many congratulations. We continue making history," Sheinbaum added.

Lopez Obrador's son, Andres Manuel Lopez Beltran, who had long been reputed to wield influence in the party, was elected as the Secretary of Organization.

Although López Obrador separated himself from the leadership of Morena in 2017 to run for the presidency of Mexico in the 2018 elections, analysts maintain that the party has always been subordinate to the ruler.

The challenge for Morena will be to administer and exercise "power on its own without the shelter and guidance of the leadership of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, whose star still shines but is on the way to extinction," said political analyst Rene Delgado.

Alcalde was one of the founders of Morena since its formation as a civil association in 2011, when she served as youth coordinator. Her mother and senior Morena politician, Bertha Luján, has been a long-time Lopez Obrador ally, while her sister Bertha Alcalde has also held various public positions.

(Writing by Drazen Jorgic; editing by Diane Craft)