Top Latin American Capital Mayors May 2026: Mejía Leads Again

LATIN AMERICA · POLITICS

The Latin American mayor approval rankings released this week by CB Consultora Opinión Pública show a familiar three-way leadership pattern, with shifts in the middle positions. The Argentine polling firm tracks the approval ratings of 18 capital-city mayors monthly. The May 2026 fieldwork ran from May 18 to May 22 and shows Carolina Mejía of Santo Domingo continuing to top the regional list.

The Latin American mayor approval rankings top of the table

Carolina Mejía of Santo Domingo leads with 58.5 percent positive image, although her score has eased from 60.1 percent in March and 62.8 percent in February. The Dominican Republic capital mayor has held the top spot in the regional ranking continuously since the start of 2026. Her administration has emphasized park and plaza improvements across the city’s three administrative circumscriptions and technical-training programs for residents.

Clara Brugada of Mexico City takes second place at 57.3 percent. Brugada took office as head of government for Mexico City in October 2024 and has built her base through social-policy continuity from the previous Morena administration. Mayer Mizrachi of Panama City takes third place at 50.4 percent, the highest reading among Central American capitals in the survey.

Mario Durán of San Salvador holds fourth place at 47.9 percent. The Salvadoran capital mayor benefits from broader association with the Bukele administration’s security record. Together the top four mayors are the only four in the survey clearing the 47.5 percent threshold, suggesting a meaningful gap between the regional leaders and the rest of the field.

South American performance in the rankings

Jorge Macri of Buenos Aires occupies fifth place at 45.8 percent positive image, making him the best-ranked mayor in South America in May. The breakdown shows 24.4 percent of porteños rate his administration as good and 21.4 percent as very good, against 48.6 percent negative image. The reading is an improvement from 45.4 percent in April, putting Macri on a modest upward trend within the regional survey.

Carlos Fernando Galán of Bogotá takes sixth place at 45.2 percent, having dropped from the fifth position he held in April. The Colombian capital mayor sits in the upper-middle band of the ranking. His administration continues to face the dual pressure of security challenges in southern districts and ongoing TransMilenio operational issues that have generated steady citizen complaints.

Pabel Muñoz of Quito and Renzo Reggiardo of Lima fill the middle positions in the survey. Reggiardo took over as Lima mayor on an acting basis after the original incumbent left office, and his short tenure shapes his approval trajectory. Brazil’s capital Brasília is represented in the survey by Governor Celina Leão of the Federal District since Ibaneis Rocha left office in March 2026 following the Federal District financial-crisis fallout.

The bottom of the Latin American mayor approval rankings

The lowest-rated mayors in the May 2026 ranking are concentrated in Andean and Central American capitals. Luis Bello of Asunción, Iván Arias of La Paz and Ricardo Quiñónez of Guatemala City have consistently appeared at the bottom of the survey since early 2026. Bello’s positive image was at just 20.3 percent in February and the trajectory has remained difficult.

The roughly 30-percentage-point gap between the top and bottom of the regional table reflects sharp variation in citizen perception of local governance quality. Cities with significant tourism revenues, formal-sector employment and active public-works programs tend to cluster near the top. Cities with sustained fiscal stress, security problems or institutional disputes cluster near the bottom.

Methodology limits and what they mean

The ranking does not capture all relevant variables. Mayors of metropolitan-area municipalities are measured separately from capital-city mayors proper, which can omit larger conurbations, and the survey focuses on positive image rather than net approval. CB Consultora has run the methodology consistently since 2023.

What the Latin American mayor approval rankings mean

The survey is one of the few cross-national datasets that allows direct comparison of municipal-level governance in Latin America. Most national polling does not produce city-level results that are comparable across countries. The CB Global Data series therefore fills a real gap for political analysts, foreign investors and regional policy researchers seeking to track urban governance trends.

Three female mayors lead the regional ranking, with Mejía at the top, Brugada in second and several other female-led administrations clustered in the middle. The pattern reflects broader gains for women in Latin American urban executive positions over the past decade, with Mexico City, Lima and other capitals having all had female heads of government in recent cycles. The ranking also tracks polling for São Paulo’s Ricardo Nunes and Rio’s Eduardo Cavaliere in separate Brazilian sub-surveys.

For foreign residents and visitors, the survey is a useful complement to safety and quality-of-life indicators such as the IPEA Atlas da Violência. Cities with high mayoral approval often score well on local services, public-space quality and institutional responsiveness. Cities at the bottom of the ranking typically face deeper structural challenges that affect daily life for both residents and longer-term expat communities.

The Rio Times — Friday, May 29, 2026 — 06:00 BRT — By Sofia Gabriela Martinez