MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has been groped by a man as she mingled with citizens on the streets of Mexico City, raising questions about the lack of presidential security and the level of sexual harassment faced by the country’s women.
A video of the event shows a visibly intoxicated man attempting to kiss the President on the neck and embrace her from behind.
Sheinbaum is seen removing his hands and turning to face him before a government official intervened, placing himself between the two. As the man was steered away, Sheinbaum maintained a stiff smile and said: “Don’t worry.”
State police later confirmed the man was arrested. On Wednesday, President Sheinbaum stated her intention to press charges, framing the incident not just as a personal event, but as a public statement on women’s rights.
“This is something I experienced as a woman, but it is something that all women in our country experience,” said Sheinbaum in her daily press conference. “If I do not file a complaint, where does that leave all Mexican women? If they do this to the president, what happens to all the other women in the country?”
The patriarchy and immunity
The incident was immediately seized upon by commentators as proof that no woman is immune to sexual harassment in Mexico, regardless of her status.
Catalina Ruiz-Navarro, a journalist for the feminist outlet Volcánicas, highlighted the underlying power dynamic:
“Even if you’re the president, any guy believes he has the right to touch you,” said Catalina Ruiz-Navarro, a journalist for the feminist outlet Volcánicas. “When they ask what the patriarchy is – this is it.”
Mexican magazine editorial director Alejandra Escobar echoed this sentiment on X:
“Hopefully [the presidency will press charges], and the president will send a clear message: no man has the right to kiss or touch a woman without her consent,” wrote Alejandra Escobar, editorial director of Etcétera, a Mexican magazine, on X. “May this also serve as an example for [her assistants]: it is not acceptable for her to be so exposed.”
Security risks and precedent
Beyond the issue of harassment, the event highlighted serious questions about the broader security risk faced by President Sheinbaum. Her security detail was not clearly visible in the video, and the intervention took several critical seconds.
This lapse comes just days after the murder of popular Mayor Carlos Alberto Manzo Rodríguez at a Day of the Dead celebration in Uruapan, Michoacán, where a gunman shot him seven times at close range. Manzo Rodríguez had previously and publicly appealed to Sheinbaum via social media for help in confronting criminal groups in the region.
Manzo Rodríguez is only the latest official casualty in a country where 37 candidates were killed on the campaign trail before the June 2024 election, and another 10 municipal presidents have been killed since Sheinbaum’s government began on October 1.
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While local authorities are most frequently targeted, high-level officials are not exempt:
- In 1994, presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta was assassinated at a rally.
- More recently, in 2020, the Jalisco cartel attempted to assassinate Omar García Harfuch, Sheinbaum’s current security minister, riddling his convoy with bullets in the middle of Mexico City.
Despite these risks, Sheinbaum has chosen to maintain the security philosophy of her popular predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who preferred to mingle with crowds with a lighter security presence. She stated she would not be changing her security arrangements:
“We cannot distance ourselves from the people,” said Sheinbaum. “That would be to deny where we come from and who we are.”
