While Mexicans voted last Sunday, many Latin American officials traveled to nearby El Salvador to see President Nayib Bukele inaugurated for a second term.

During his first five years in office, Bukele used a legislative majority to stack the country’s Supreme Court with loyalists—a judicial overhaul that set off alarm bells among pro-democracy watchdogs. But Bukele stayed his course and has proved enormously popular among Salvadorans. In February, he coasted to a reelection victory.

As Bukele began his second term, former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum won Mexico’s presidency with a more than 30-percentage-point lead over her closest competitor. Although final results are still being tallied, Sheinbaum’s Morena party and its allies are on track to gain a supermajority in Mexico’s lower legislative house and a near-supermajority in the Senate.

El Salvador under Bukele is an example of the kind of governance—good or bad, depending on whom you ask—that is possible with such substantial legislative power. Sheinbaum will enjoy a level of congressional backing that is rare in Latin America and the democratic world today.

Sheinbaum’s election was partially an endorsement of the legacy of her predecessor and patron, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. She pledged to generally continue his popular policies, which included minimum wage hikes, support for unions, and rules that reduced labor outsourcing.

Now that Sheinbaum is president-elect, some potential policy differences with López Obrador are emerging. In the days after his 2018 election victory, the only foreign leader López Obrador tweeted about corresponding with was then-U.S. President Donald Trump. What followed was a foreign policy that engaged relatively little with countries beyond the United States; critics have said Mexico punched below its weight in international forums.

Sheinbaum, on the other hand, has issued a string of posts and a video about all the foreign leaders she has spoken to so far. In her victory speech, she said she wants to maintain friendly and respectful relations with Washington—and bring Mexico closer to “the South and the Caribbean.” Those places went unmentioned in López Obrador’s victory address.

Another new term that appeared in Sheinbaum’s victory speech is “renewable energy.” Sheinbaum holds a doctorate in energy engineering and was a contributing author to the United Nations’ flagship climate change report.

While the López Obrador administration has overseen state oil company Pemex and state power utility CFE’s embrace of oil and coal, Sheinbaum’s energy advisors suggested in interviews that Pemex would also embrace geothermal energy and CFE be used to speed the adaptation of wind and solar power as well as to produce biodiesel. However, the advisors cautioned that this transition would not be sudden. Sheinbaum will also have to address Pemex’s heavy debt load.

Sheinbaum may hew closer to her predecessor in other areas. Although López Obrador’s economic policies dramatically reduced poverty, Mexico’s high levels of violence continued under his watch.

On security, Sheinbaum has said she aims to maintain López Obrador’s National Guard, a gendarmerie that has militarized Mexican law enforcement, to criticism from experts. This year, she also endorsed his controversial wish list of desired constitutional reforms, including the direct election of Supreme Court justices. Dramatic judicial changes often send countries down the totem pole of democracy indexes, as in the case of El Salvador.

Mexico’s new Congress and its pro-Morena majorities will be sworn in a month before Sheinbaum. In that window, López Obrador may be able to make the constitutional changes he desires. On Monday, he said he would speak to Sheinbaum to jointly define which reforms he will pursue. The agreement they reach will offer one of the first major clues as to how Sheinbaum plans to use her new power.

Upcoming Events

Monday, June 10, to Tuesday, June 11: Brazil attends the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting in Russia.

Sunday, July 28: Venezuela is due to hold a presidential election.