Mexican President Sheinbaum appoints ally Olivia Vibaldo to revive the Mexican Lottery
The government of Mexico has confirmed the appointment of Olivia Salomón Vibaldo as the new Director General of Lotería Nacional (Lotenal).
The appointment carries the support of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, for whom Vibaldo served as Business Liaison Secretary during Sheinbaum’s landslide election victory in 2024, when she became Mexico’s first-ever female President.
A figurehead in Mexican business, Vibaldo is the former founder of the real estate investment firm SyA Promotores, helping to build commercial properties and public venues in the municipality of Puebla. In 2019, Vibaldo entered Mexican politics, having been elected as Secretary of Economy for the State of Puebla.
Her tenure is credited with raising foreign investment in Puebla and implementing a new ‘Energy Actions’ programme, recognised for reviving Puebla’s GDP growth from 0.9% in 2019 to 3.2%.
At a national level, Vibaldo has promoted the equality and social justice campaigns of “Mujer es Poder” and “Abarrotes Don Justino” – federal programmes that seek to ensure educational equality for Mexican women and young people from underprivileged backgrounds. Vibaldo is expected to introduce drastic changes to Lotenal, which is viewed as a federal public administration that has fallen behind its duties due to chaotic mismanagement. Lotenal was reformed in 1940s as the National Lottery for Public Assistance – providing direct support for welfare and social services for Mexico’s poorest communities. Though no longer in office, Vibaldo has publicly supported the ‘Cuarta Transformación’ (‘Fourth Transformation’) – an economic programme led by the governing MORENA Party, alongside the Labour Party and Los Ecologistas (Green Party).
President Sheinbaum has vowed to maintain and accelerate the directives of the Cuarta Transformación initiated by her predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). The programme’s primary objectives include overhauling Mexico’s IT, telecom, and banking systems to support poor communities, expanding educational support, ending “corruption and political privilege”, and shifting Mexico to a renewable energy supply. Despite the programme’s support, tensions remain as the MORENA Party is accused of applying excessive state control over private businesses, which detractors claim has impacted foreign investment in Mexico. The appointment of Vibaldo likely signals a reorganisation of Lotería Nacional, in which Sheinbaum and the MORENA Party must decide on its future as a government agency.
https://sbcnews.co.uk/technology/2025/03/10/sheinbaum-olivia-vibaldo-mx/