Man gropes Mexico president as she speaks with citizens on the streets | Claudia Sheinbaum
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was groped by a man while mingling with citizens on the streets of Mexico City, raising questions about both the lack of presidential security and the level of sexual harassment faced by women in the country.
Video of Tuesday’s incident shows a clearly intoxicated man trying to kiss the president on the neck and embracing him from behind, before the president raises his hands and turns to face him, and a government official steps in and positions himself between them.
As the man is led away, Sheinbaum can be seen smiling nervously and saying, “Don’t worry.”
Later state police approved He said the man was arrested.
Commentators said the incident showed that no woman in Mexico is immune from sexual harassment.
“Every man believes he has the right to touch you, even if you’re the president.” in question Catalina Ruiz-Navarro, journalist for the feminist publication Volcánicas. “When they ask what patriarchy is, this is it.”
But the incident also highlighted the broader safety risk Sheinbaum faced on the street; because his security details were not clearly visible in the video and it took seconds for anyone to intervene.
This came just days after Carlos Alberto Manzo Rodríguez, a popular mayor, was killed during Day of the Dead celebrations in Uruapan in Michoacán state by a gunman who shot him seven times at close range and was then killed himself.
In previous months, Manzo Rodríguez had made a public appeal to Sheinbaum on social media for his help in fighting criminal groups in the area.
Manzo Rodríguez was the last official killed in Mexico. 37 candidates He was killed on the campaign trail ahead of elections in June 2024, and 10 other mayors have been killed since Sheinbaum’s government took office on October 1.
Although local governments are the most frequently targeted in Mexico, high-level officials are not immune from risk.
In 1994, presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta was shot and killed during a rally in the border city of Tijuana. More recently, in 2020, the Jalisco cartel tried to assassinate Sheinbaum’s current security minister, Omar García Harfuch, by peppering his motorcade with bullets in the middle of Mexico City.
Sheinbaum himself had fear of security While campaigning in the state of Chiapas last year, when masked men stopped his car and asked him to address the violence in the state, he refused to let him continue driving.
Sheinbaum has so far continued the habit of his popular predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of blending in with the crowd and favoring lighter security; But such an event might cause him to reconsider.
“Hopefully [the presidency will press charges]Alejandra Escobar, editor-in-chief of the Mexican magazine Etcétera, wrote: “No man has the right to kiss or touch a woman without her consent.” in x. “Let this be an example [her assistants]: It is unacceptable for it to be exposed this much.”
