MEXICO CITY

Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard announced Tuesday that he will resign next week so he can focus on securing the presidential nomination from the ruling party for elections in 2024.

Ebrard is the first top official from the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) created by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to announce his candidacy for the nomination.

Previously, Lopez Obrador had said that the people would choose MORENA's presidential candidate, announcing a referendum to vote among the potential officials from the party interested in the presidency.

"Friends, I have also resolved, and I am communicating this to you, to request and present my resignation to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs as of Monday, June 12, first thing next week," Ebrard said at a press conference at the Hilton Hotel in Mexico City.

He became the first official to announce his resignation from public office to pursue his presidential ambitions. However, he is not the only one among President Obrador's closest allies to express his interest in the presidency.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum and Interior Minister Adan Augusto Lopez Hernandez, a longtime friend of the president, have repeatedly expressed their desire to be considered for the presidential nomination.

In May, Lopez Hernandez challenged Mexico's electoral body, which bans public officials from promoting themselves as candidates before campaigns officially begin, by saying he was going to be the next president.

In an interview in January, Sheinbaum also shared her desire to become the country's first woman president.

"I will proudly run in the MORENA referendum for several reasons: one, because of history, because of what I represent. I am convinced that even when I represent myself, I am part of a generation that gave an impulse to the transformation of the country. And the other, to be the first woman president," she said.

While it has not been disclosed when the referendum to elect the next presidential candidate will occur, polls in Mexico have shown Sheinbaum as the favorite candidate among Mexicans, with Ebrard in a close second and Lopez Hernandez in third place.  

MORENA's political opposition, comprised of the multiparty alliance PRI-PAN-PRD, has yet to define who would face off against MORENA's candidate in the 2024 presidential elections.