Thousands of supporters celebrated the nomination of Mexican Senator Xochitl Galvez on Sunday as the 2024 presidential candidate of an opposition alliance set to take on the country's ruling party.
Galvez, a spirited communicator who has energized the opposition, is seen as the main candidate to take on President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), which is due to announce its own candidate on Sept. 6.
Supporters rallied near the capital's Angel of Independence monument to herald Galvez's nomination for the alliance Frente Amplio por Mexico - or the Broad Front for Mexico, made official in a ceremony on Sunday.
Galvez said she received the nomination "with great pride." She gave remarks in an indigenous language, before delivering a speech in Spanish.
"Problems are not fixed with ideologies, they are fixed with solutions," she added, in an apparent reference to Lopez Obrador.
Supporters could be heard chanting "we are going to win" as they waved flags and banners supporting Galvez's nomination and the alliance.
"She is going to get us all out of the hole, the indigenous people, the poorest, the middle class," said Hector Chavez, a supporter donning the emblematic red, white and green of Mexico's flag. "And she is going to boost the economy."
Representatives of the coalition, the center-right PAN, the leftist PRD and the once-powerful PRI party - which supported Galvez at the expense of its own challenger, Beatriz Paredes - had called for Galvez's nomination earlier in the week.
