Claudia Sheinbaum is pressing charges against a person who was caught groping her on the street while she was interacting with residents in Mexico City.
Footage of the incident, which was taken on Tuesday while Sheinbaum was on her way back to the National Palace after attending an event on the Ministry of Public Education, shows a person approaching the Mexican president from behind and attempting to kiss her neck and run his hands up and down her body.
Within the video, Sheinbaum is seen grabbing the person’s hands and turning to face him as a security guard intervenes, steering the person away from the president.
On Wednesday, Sheinbaum stated in her day by day press briefing that she had pressed charges against the person, adding that she felt it was her responsibility to tell victims of harassment that such behaviour wouldn’t be tolerated.
“I made a decision to file a grievance because that is something I experienced as a girl, and it’s something women in our country undergo,” she told reporters.
“And my reflection is, if I don’t file a grievance — though that is against the law — then what position does that leave all Mexican women in? In the event that they do that to the president, then what’s going to occur to all of the young women in our country?” she added.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum arrives at a polling station to vote within the country’s first judicial elections on June 1.
AP Photo/Marco Ugarte
She also called on Mexican states to have a look at their laws and procedures to make it easier for ladies to report such assaults and said Mexicans needed to listen to a “loud and clear ‘no’ … women’s personal space must not be violated.”
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Based on Sheinbaum, the person went on to harass other women along the identical street.
“This person is now under arrest,” she said, alleging that he was noticeably drunk and under the influence of medication when he groped her.
Andrea González Martínez, 27, who works for Mexican lender Nacional Monte de Piedad, told The Associated Press that she has been harassed on public transport, and in a single instance was followed home.
“It happens repeatedly, it happens on public transportation,” she said. “It’s something you experience day by day in Mexico.”
Her co-worker, Carmen Maldonado Castillo, 43, said she has witnessed it.
“It’s not good that men attack us,” she said. “You possibly can’t walk around free on the street.”
When Sheinbaum was elected, she said it wasn’t just her coming to power; it was all women.
Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada leaned on Sheinbaum’s words to reiterate that the harassment of any woman is an assault against all women.
“In the event that they attack the president, they attack us all,” she wrote on X.
Brugada said that was “not a slogan, it’s a commitment to not look the opposite way, to not allow misogyny to proceed to be veiled in habits, to not accept a single additional humiliation, not one other abuse, not a single femicide more.”
The incident immediately raised questions on the president’s security.
Still, Sheinbaum dismissed any suggestion that she would increase her security or alter her interactions with people, explaining that she and her team had decided to walk from the National Palace to the Education Ministry to avoid wasting time. She said they may walk it in five minutes, fairly than taking a 20-minute automobile ride.
— With files from The Associated Press
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