Clara Marina Brugada Molina (born August 12, 1963) is a Mexican politician who is the head of government ofMexico City after winning the 2024 election.[1][2] A member of Morena, she formerly served as mayor of the borough of Iztapalapa and as a federal and district legislator.
Personal life and education
Brugada was born on August 12, 1963, in Mexico City. After her father died at 15, she moved with her family to Chiapas, a southern state in Mexico with high levels of poverty. The inequality and poverty she saw there prompted her to study economics.[3]
She attended the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM) in Iztapalapa from 1980 to 1985, where she earned a degree in economics. She later worked as an advisor for DECA Equipo Pueblo, a civil association.[4]
She is not married and has no children. She has said she planned to dedicate her life to her community.[3]
Political career
Early career
Brugada first ran for political office 1995, where she was elected as a councilor for the San Miguel Teotongo neighborhood in the inaugural citizen council of Iztapalapa.
In 1997, she was elected to the federal Chamber of Deputies as a member of the PRD as the representative for District 22 (Sierra de Santa Catarina).[5] In 2000, she was elected as a deputy in the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District (now the Congress of Mexico City). She returned to the federal Chamber of Deputies in the 2003 election.[4]
Federal District (Mexico City) politics
Brugada joined the government of Head of Government (mayor) Marcelo Ebrard following his victory in the 2006 election. In 2009, she became head of the borough of Iztapalapa, serving until 2012. After the conclusion of her term in 2012, Brugada left the PRD in 2012, and in 2014 joined Morena, a party founded by Andrés Manuel López Obrador.[4][5] She was voted Secretary of Welfare of the National Executive Committee of Morena, and two years later she became the Deputy and Vice President of the Constituent Assembly of Mexico City.[5]
In the 2018 elections, Brugada was elected borough mayor of Iztapalapa, and was reelected in 2021. As mayor, she implemented several infrastructure and community projects, such as the construction of the second line of the Cablebus (an elevated trolleybus), mural projects and community centers called Utopías.[5] The aim of this last initiative was to facilitate access to public services for the communities of Iztapalapa (with a population close to 2 million). Utopías won the International Observatory on Participatory Democracy (IOPD) award for 2024.[6]
In September 2023, she resigned as borough mayor in order to run for mayor of Mexico City in the 2024 election.[7] Brugada was chosen as Morena's candidate over former Secretary of Citizen Security Omar García Harfuch.[8] On 2 June 2024, Brugada was elected mayor. She was inaugurated on 5 October. Among her pledges is to improve security for women, alleviate the ongoing water crisis, prevent forced evictions and prioritize rental housing for youth with the option to buy.[9] She has a feminist perspective, and she plans for her cabinets to reflect this. Her cabinet is composed of 10 men and 11 women.[3]
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