Sheinbaum Rallies Supporters in Response to Trump Threats

Tens of thousands from across Mexico gather in capital in a patriotic fiesta and show of unity

- José De Córdoba & Steve Fisher

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum celebrated a second month's suspension of U.S. tariffs with a giant fiesta in the capital's central square before a crowd of tens of thousands of supporters bused in from every corner of the country.

Sunday's rally represented a show of unity in defense of Mexico's sovereignty. The popular leftist leader initially planned to use the mass gathering to outline her government's retaliatory measures against unilateral tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.

After President Trump decided to put tariffs on hold following a telephone conversation with Sheinbaum last week, the event at the Zocalo turned into a cheerful festival.

Sheinbaum was greeted with shouts of "Presidenta, Presidenta" as she strode across the stage. Dozens of mariachi musicians warmed up the crowd in the monumental square where Mexican leaders have traditionally gone to rally support for historic actions such as the expropriation of foreign-owned oil firms in the late 1930s, and the nationalization of the banking system in the early 1980s.

The Zocalo—the "political heart of Mexico," as Sheinbaum called it—was packed with people from as far away as northwest Sinaloa state and the southern border state of Chiapas, both racked by rising drug gang violence.

Many in the crowd were local and state government workers bused in by activists of the ruling Morena party.