MEXICO CITY: Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday she had filed a complaint against a man who groped her and tried to kiss her as she walked between meetings in the capital, a day after a video of the incident went viral.
“If this happens to the president, where does that leave all the young women in our country?” said Sheinbaum, Mexico’s first female president.
“No man has the right to abuse a woman’s personal space.”
Video of the incident quickly spread across social media before being taken down by some accounts, highlighting for many Mexicans the insecurity women face in a country steeped in machismo and gender-based violence.
The episode has also raised questions about Sheinbaum’s security arrangements. Like her predecessor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Sheinbaum travels with minimal protection and makes herself widely accessible to the public, often wading into crowds.
She said on Wednesday that she did not plan to change that approach, adding, “We have to be close to the people.”
The incident occurred on Tuesday in the capital’s historic centre as Sheinbaum greeted members of the public while walking the short distance from Mexico’s National Palace to the Ministry of Education.
The video shows a middle-aged man putting his arm around Sheinbaum, touching her chest, and attempting to kiss her. She is seen moving his hands away before a member of her staff steps in. Her security detail did not appear to be close by at the time.
Sheinbaum said the man appeared to be drunk.
Re-victimisation
She also criticised the Mexican newspaper Reforma for publishing images of the assault, saying it amounted to “re-victimisation” and had crossed an ethical line.
“The use of the image is also a crime,” Sheinbaum said, referring to legislation against digital violence.
“I am waiting for an apology from the newspaper.”
The federal government’s Women’s Ministry, created under Sheinbaum’s administration, issued a statement on Tuesday encouraging women to report violence against them, while urging media outlets “not to reproduce content that violates the integrity of women.”
Still, feminist activists have sharply criticised Sheinbaum in the past for not doing enough to address violence against women, citing weak prosecutions and investigations into femicides — the killing of a woman because of her gender.
In 2024, Mexico recorded 821 femicides, according to government data. As of September this year, 501 cases had been reported, although advocates say the true figure is likely far higher.
CRIMINALISING HARASSMENT
Ana Yeli Perez of the National Citizen Observatory on Femicide said the groping of Sheinbaum had put the issue of violence against women back on the national agenda.
“It’s reprehensible, it must be denounced, it must be named, because it’s an act of violence — but it’s also significant and symbolic of what women experience every day,” she said.
Sheinbaum said sexual harassment should be a “criminal offence, punishable by law”, adding that she had asked Mexico’s Women’s Ministry to review the legal codes of each state.
Sexual harassment is currently a crime in about half of Mexico’s states, as well as in the capital, Mexico City.
Local media identified the man accused of assaulting Sheinbaum as Uriel Rivera, and a state security report showed he was arrested at 9pm on Tuesday.
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