Claudia Sheinbaum files charges against a man who was caught groping her on the street while interacting with citizens in Mexico City.
Images of the incident, which were taken on Tuesday while Sheinbaum was returning to the National Palace after attending an event at the Ministry of Public Education, show a man approaching the Mexican president from behind and trying to kiss her neck and run his hands over her body.
In the video, Sheinbaum is seen grabbing the man’s hands and turning toward him as a security guard intervenes, pulling the man away from the president.
On Wednesday, Sheinbaum stated at his daily press conference that he had filed charges against the man, adding that he felt it was his responsibility to inform victims of harassment that such behavior would not be tolerated.
“I decided to file a complaint because this is something I experienced as a woman and it is something that women in our country go through,” she told reporters.
“And my reflection is, if I don’t file a complaint, even though this is a crime, then in what position does that leave all Mexican women? If they do this to the president, what will happen to all the young women in our country?” he added.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum arrives at a polling station to vote in the country’s first judicial elections on June 1.
AP Photo/Marco Ugarte
“She also called on Mexican states to review their laws and procedures to make it easier for women to report these types of attacks and said that Mexicans need to hear a ‘no’ loud and clear…women’s personal space should not be violated.”
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According to Sheinbaum, the man went on to harass other women on the same street.
“This person is now arrested,” he said, alleging that he was visibly drunk and under the influence of drugs 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 transportation and in one case was followed home.
“This happens regularly, it happens on public transportation,” he said. “It is something that is experienced every day in Mexico.”
His co-worker, Carmen Maldonado Castillo, 43, said she witnessed it.
“It’s not good for men to attack us,” he said. “You can’t walk free on the street.”
When Sheinbaum was elected, she said it wasn’t just about her coming to power; They were all women.
The mayor of Mexico City, Clara Brugada, relied on Sheinbaum’s words to reiterate that harassment of any woman is an attack against all women.
“If they attack the president, they attack us all” she wrote in.
Brugada said that “it is not a slogan, it is a commitment to not look the other way, to not allow misogyny to remain veiled in habits, to not accept a single more humiliation, nor one more abuse, nor a single more feminicide.”
The incident immediately raised questions about the president’s safety.
Still, Sheinbaum dismissed any suggestion that it 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 Ministry of Education to save time. He said they could walk it in five minutes, instead of taking a 20-minute car ride.
— With files from The Associated Press
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