Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum has announced she will “press charges against a man who groped her during a public appearance.”
Mobile phone footage captured the “mild drama” on Tuesday, showing Sheinbaum speaking to supporters near the National Palace in Mexico City.
The video shows a man approach her “from behind and attempts to kiss her on the neck and place his hands on her body.”
Sheinbaum “moved away quickly,” and a member of her team intervened, though the President was “visibly shaken.” The offender has been arrested.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Sheinbaum explained her decision to pursue charges, linking the incident to broader issues facing women: “My view is, if I don’t file a complaint, what will happen to other Mexican women? If they do this to the president, what will happen to all women in our country?”
She added, “I decided to press charges because this is something that I experienced as a woman, but that we as women experience in our country. I have experienced it before, when I wasn’t president, when I was a student.”
She confirmed her resolve to prosecute the suspect because he had “allegedly harassed other women in the crowd,” asserting that “A line must be drawn.”
Women’s rights groups and feminist commentators said the incident highlights the extent of “ingrained machismo in Mexican society,” where men believe they can accost even the President. This occurs in a country where femicide is a major issue, with an estimated “staggering 98% of gender-based murders estimated to go unpunished.”
Although Sheinbaum had “promised to tackle the issue as a candidate,” the article notes “there has been no discernible improvement” in this area of violent crime since she took office.
The incident raises concerns about presidential security, especially since Sheinbaum has largely followed her predecessor’s approach of having “close and regular contact with her supporters on the streets.”
Despite the security concerns, she “confirmed in her new conference she had no intention of changing her policy of interacting with her supporters.”
The event also occurred just days after the murder of Carlos Manzo, the mayor of Uruapan, who had recently asked Sheinbaum for federal support in fighting drug cartels in his violent municipality.
Sheinbaum’s administration has recently focused on “improving the country’s dire security situation,” particularly by “clamping down on fentanyl-trafficking,” a key issue for U.S. President Trump.
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