MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday he is naming current Labor Minister Luisa Maria Alcalde to replace the previous interior minister, who recently resigned to run for the ruling party's presidential nomination.
Alcalde, 35, will become one of the youngest people to hold the post, which has traditionally been one of the most powerful positions in the Mexican Cabinet.
Lopez Obrador praised her record, including seeing through several minimum wage hikes, and said it was important to give opportunities to up-and-coming politicians.
"She is young, it's very important to think about the generational transition, give the youth a chance," Lopez Obrador told his daily news conference.
Alcalde has led the Labor Ministry since Lopez Obrador took office in late 2018. In that time, she oversaw historic changes to Mexican labor law, underpinning tougher worker protections in a new trade deal with the United States and Canada.
Lopez Obrador said her appointment would maintain a strong presence of women in the Cabinet, and that she would this week meet with Alejandro Encinas, the interim head of the Interior Ministry, to discuss the transition to the new post.
Mexico's last interior minister, Adan Augusto Lopez, stepped down last week to campaign for the presidential nomination of Lopez Obrador's National Regeneration Movement (MORENA).
(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon and Brendan O'Boyle; editing by Jonathan Oatis)