PATRIARCHY IN PRACTICE
Mexico President Sheinbaum presses charges after public groping incident
Sheinbaum said she felt a responsibility to press charges for all Mexican women, because “If this is done to the president, what is going to happen to all of the young women in our country?”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday called for sexual harassment to be made a crime nationwide, saying she had pressed charges against a man who groped her the day before.
In a video circulating widely on social platforms, a man who appeared to be under the influence of alcohol stepped up and leaned in for a kiss and touched the president’s body with his hands.
Sheinbaum, 63, gently pushed his hands away, maintaining a stiff smile as she turned to face him. She could be heard to say in part, “Don’t worry.”
Sheinbaum said she felt a responsibility to press charges on behalf of all Mexican women. “If this is done to the president, what is going to happen to all of the young women in our country?”
Earlier, Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada had announced that the man had been arrested overnight.
Brugada emphasised that harassment of any woman, in this case, Mexico’s most powerful, is an assault on all women.
Gender-based violence discussion reignited
Sheinbaum, who is Mexico's first female president, used her daily press briefing to further call on Mexico's states to scrutinise their laws and procedures to make it easier for women to report such assaults.
Mexicans needed to hear a “loud and clear no; women’s personal space must not be violated,” Sheinbaum said.
She said she had experienced similar incidents of harassment when she was 12 years old while using public transportation to get to school.
“I decided to press charges because this is something that I experienced as a woman, but that we as women experience in our country,” she said.
Like her predecessor and political mentor, ex-president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum tries to maintain a connection with the people, frequently diving into crowds for selfies and handshakes.
Her security detail was not immediately visible in the close-shot video on Tuesday. Sheinbaum dismissed any suggestion that she would increase her security or change how she interacts with people.
According to Sheinbaum, she and her team had decided to walk from the National Palace to the Education Ministry to avoid a 20-minute car ride in city traffic.
Mexico's President Sheinbaum
presses charges over being groped
after video goes viral
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 in a Mexico City street, calling for sexual harassment to be made a crime nationwide. Video of the incident quickly went viral, highlighting the sexism women face in the country as well as raising questions about her security.
Issued on: 06/11/2025
By: FRANCE 24
Video by: Stella ELGERSMA
00:24
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday she filed a complaint against a man who groped her and tried to kiss her as she walked between meetings in the capital city, 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 women's personal space."
Video of the incident quickly ricocheted across the internet before being taken down by some accounts, underscoring for many in Mexico the insecurity women face in a country steeped in machismo and gender-based violence.
It has also raised questions about Sheinbaum's security detail. Like her predecessor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Sheinbaum travels with minimal security and makes herself widely available to the public, including wading into crowds of people.
She said on Wednesday that she did not plan to change that practice, saying "we have to be close to the people".
The incident happened on Tuesday in the capital's historic center as Sheinbaum was greeting members of the public while making the short walk 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 moves his hands away before a member of her staff steps between them. The president's security detail did not appear to be near her in the moment.
Sheinbaum said the man appeared to be drunk.
Re-victimisation
She also blasted Mexican newspaper Reforma for publishing images of the man groping her, saying she considered it a "re-victimisation" and that it crossed an ethical line.
"The use of the image is also a crime," Sheinbaum said, pointing to legislation against digital violence. "I am waiting for an apology from the newspaper."
The federal government's Women's Ministry, created under Sheinbaum, issued a statement on Tuesday encouraging women to report violence against them, but asking media outlets "not to reproduce content that violates the integrity of women".
Still, feminist activists have sharply criticized Sheinbaum in the past for not doing enough to address violence against women. Among other things, they point to lackluster prosecutions and investigations of femicides – the killing of a woman because of her gender.
In 2024, Mexico recorded 821 femicides, according to government data. There have been 501 femicides recorded through September of this year, and many advocates say the numbers are likely far underestimated.
Criminalising harassment
Ana Yeli Perez of the National Citizen Observatory on Femicide said the groping of Sheinbaum puts the issue of violence against women on the national agenda again.
"It's reprehensible, it must be denounced, it must be named, because it's an act of violence, but it's also a significant event 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 has asked Mexico's Women's Ministry to conduct a review of the legal codes in each state.
Sexual harassment is a crime in about half of Mexican states, as well as the capital Mexico City. Local media identified the man who assaulted Sheinbaum as Uriel Rivera and a state security filing showed he was arrested at 9pm on Tuesday night.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)
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