President Claudia Sheinbaum seeks charges after being groped in Mexico City
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she will pursue charges against a man who groped and attempted to kiss her as she was walking in the city
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she will pursue charges against a man who groped and attempted to kiss her as she was walking in the capital’s historical center on Tuesday.
The incident, caught on video and widely shared locally, shows a man approaching Sheinbaum, putting one arm around her shoulder and touching her hip and chest with the other one.
Sheinbaum, addressing the issue unprompted at her daily press briefing Wednesday, said she would lodge a formal complaint against the man and ask the women’s ministry to assess whether criminal charges are in order. She added that he appeared to be under the influence of alcohol.
Also read: On cam: Mexico President shockingly harassed, kissed, touched by man in public; This happened next…
“This is something that shouldn’t happen — and I don’t say this as a president, but as a woman,” Sheinbaum told reporters. “Our personal space must not be violated by anyone. If this happens to the president, what would happen to the rest of women and young women in our country?”
The president emphasized that, like many women in Mexico, she has endured harassment since she was a child, stressing the need to tighten regulations against such crimes.
Harassment complaints have been on the rise in the country, with one out of every two women enduring some form of sexual aggression, according to data compiled by the Senate. It’s estimated that around 91% of sexual violence cases go unpunished in Mexico.
The president was on foot with her security detail heading to an event at the education ministry. The building is a quarter mile away from the National Palace, and she said she opted for a five minute walk instead of a near-half hour drive, adding that she expects to continue walking when it makes sense.
“We’re not going to change the way we are,” she said. “We can’t be far from the people, that would be denying where we come from,” she added.
Mexican presidents for decades were protected by an elite wing of the army, but Sheinbaum’s predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, derided it as too costly and unnecessarily large. He went on to replace it with a smaller security detail at the start of his term in late 2018.
“I won’t tighten my security,” Sheinbaum insisted on Wednesday. The president said she would only consider doing so based on a credible threat against her identified by her cabinet.
