Sheinbaum Made Mexico City the Digital Capital of the Western Hemisphere
During her time as mayor, the president-elect built world-class technological infrastructure that she can now bring to the national stage.
Mexico City has deployed the world’s largest free public Wi-Fi network.
Photographer: John Coletti/The Image Bank RFWhen Claudia Sheinbaum was elected mayor of Mexico City in 2018, it was with the promise of making the largest municipality in North America one defined by rights and innovation, where its 9.2 million residents have easy and efficient access to all of the government services to which they are entitled. Now, as the first female to be elected President of Mexico, the world will get to see how the former mayor galvanizes the lessons learned from front-line, inclusive public service delivery to move the people of Mexico forward.
Indeed, in what seems like the blink of an eye, Mexico City emerged as a global digital services pacesetter. It’s a come-from-behind story that has yet to be detected by most urbanists or the “smart-cities” set, still conditioned to focus on those in Europe and Asia. Look closely, though, and it’s clear that CDMX has advanced the most radical digital reform in the Western Hemisphere — if not beyond.