MEXICO CITY — Xochitl Galvez, holding court Monday during her first press conference since the official launch of Mexico’s presidential campaign March 1, detailed plans for ending the bloodiest, most crime-ridden years in the country’s history. Her campaign’s motto, “Mexico without fear,” perfectly suits Ms. Galvez’s courageous candidacy and inspiring life story.  

On crime, “we have to have more cooperation with the U.S.,” Ms. Galvez tells the Sun as we chat during the 40-minute drive to the airport from her campaign’s headquarters. She is on her way to Yucatán and a seven-city tour of the country in the next three days.

Ms. Galvez disagrees with some in Washington who call for sending in the Marines to fight Mexico’s cartels, and she scoffs at domestic opponents who fear a loss of sovereignty. Her plans are Mexico-centered. Yet, with improved crime-fighting coordination, she says, the narcos “won’t have arms smuggled into Mexico, and America won’t have fentanyl.” 

Ms. Galvez says she has no favorites in America’s presidential campaign, as both will need Mexico’s cooperation. She is not intimidated by President Trump, since she has learned that “men who talk big can be controlled,” she says. 

For now, Ms. Galvez is behind in the polls, which are led by President Lopez-Obrador’s hand-picked would-be successor, Mexico City’s mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum. Polls favoring AMLO, as the president is widely known, claim an unlikely 30-point lead for Ms. Sheinbaum. The opposition believes Ms. Galvez is as close as 9 points. 

Unlike the current president, who prizes ties with Latin America’s dictatorial regimes in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua, the 61-year-old Ms. Galvez is mostly interested in Mexico’s northern neighbors. “Look, we are in North America,” she says. “Our trade is with the U.S., and our tourism is from the U.S. and Canada.”

Unlike South America’s “red wave” countries, Ms. Galvez says she would do business with Communist China “only when necessary.” She would not, for one, make AMLO’s mistake of accepting a Chinese company’s low bid to install X-ray monitors on America’s border, to Washington’s strong disapproval.

While she believes the war in Gaza needs to end soon, Ms. Galvez says that the October 7 Hamas attack was a horrific terrorist act. “Mexico didn’t condemn it,” she says, which would have been the right thing to do, as “Israel was fighting against terrorism.” 

Domestically, Ms. Galvez wants to free the economy from shackling government controls. “I understand the value of a job,” she says. “Claudia is a scientist. I am a businesswoman, and I know how to create jobs.”

Part of her economic revival plan involves “near-shoring” — the idea that as America’s top tech companies sour on manufacturing in Communist China, they would move plants to nearby Mexico. For that, the country would need to create the right environment, which it lacks under the current leadership.

The technologically savvy Ms. Galvez wants to change all that. Her fans sport hand-crafted hearts with the letter X, for her first name (Xochitl, which rhymes with Churchill). The letter also symbolizes her unlikely rise from humble beginnings to the top echelon of Mexico’s business and political world despite endless attempts to “ex- her out,” as one campaign aide says. 

Born north of Mexico City to a poor family of indigenous origins, Ms. Galvez managed to get a scholarship from the University of Mexico, where she learned how to code. Founding a highly successful hi-tech company from scratch later, she caught the eye of President Fox, who in 2001 named her to his cabinet.

Later, after becoming a senator, Ms. Galvez often denounced Mr. Lopez Obrador’s policies, his “corrupt” Morena party machine, and his government’s incompetence. He responded by spreading personal attacks against her in his daily press conferences.

Last July, Mexico’s high court ruled that Ms. Galvez could attend one of those conferences to respond to the president’s allegations. Violating a court order, guards blocked her entry to the presidential palace. Facing television cameras outside, she said, “In that case, how about I run for president.” 

Now, running atop a coalition of Mexico’s three biggest parties, Ms. Galvez is competing with Morena’s Ms. Sheinbaum to become Mexico’s first female president. With three months to go, Mr. Lopez Obrador’s popularity is waning, and the Morena candidate lacks the charisma and spark that animate Ms. Galvez’s supporters. 

“Eight months ago I was outside; now I managed to close the gap to 9-10 points,” Ms. Galvez says. Mexicans are sick of lawlessness and the government’s soft approach to crime and the cartels, she says, as she vows to reverse Mr.  López Obrador’s policies. 

She will not, for one, shake hands with the mother of Joaquin “el-Chapo” Guzman, as the president did two years ago. Murder rates since 2018, when AMLO assumed the presidency, are the highest in history. “Ninety percent of the people feel unsafe,” Ms. Galvez says. 

She would target top narcos for arrest and build a maximum security prison for them, while raising law enforcers’ salaries and benefits.

Yucatán, she says, is now one of two of the “calmest states in Mexico,” years after it was considered most violent. “In both states you have well-paid police,” she says. You would fight crime “if you can buy a house and scholarship for your kids, or when you have life insurance, knowing your family is secure.”

The presidential campaign is just beginning, and to win, Ms. Galvez will need more than policy plans. Her genuine rag-to-riches story could pave her way to the Palacio Nacional, where just last year she was banned from entering.