Mexico's Senate has appointed Ernestina Godoy, a long-time legal adviser to President Claudia Sheinbaum, as the country's next attorney general. The decision was made on Wednesday following the resignation of Alejandro Gertz Manero last Friday.
Godoy had been serving as interim attorney general since Gertz Manero stepped down. Prior to that, she was Sheinbaum's legal adviser from the start of her presidency in October 2024, and previously served as Mexico City prosecutor when Sheinbaum was mayor.
President Sheinbaum stated earlier on Wednesday that her short list of candidates consisted entirely of women. Her Morena party holds a majority in the Senate, which approved the appointment.
Gertz Manero, 86, had held public security positions since the 1970s and preferred to stay out of the spotlight. He resigned to take up an ambassadorship, though the administration has not specified which country. Appointed in January 2019 as Mexico's first supposedly independent attorney general, his tenure was marked by close ties to former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, drawing criticism from civil organisations.
