Mexico President Sheinbaum presses charges after public groping incident

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday called for sexual harassment to be made a crime nationwide, saying she had pressed charges against a man who groped her the day before.

In a video circulating widely on social platforms, a man who appeared to be under the influence of alcohol stepped up and leaned in for a kiss and touched the president’s body with his hands.

Sheinbaum, 63, gently pushed his hands away, maintaining a stiff smile as she turned to face him. She could be heard to say in part, “Don’t worry.”

Sheinbaum said she felt a responsibility to press charges on behalf of all Mexican women. “If this is done to the president, what is going to happen to all of the young women in our country?”

Earlier, Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada had announced that the man had been arrested overnight.

Brugada emphasised that harassment of any woman, in this case, Mexico’s most powerful, is an assault on all women.

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Sheinbaum, who is Mexico's first female president, used her daily press briefing to further call on Mexico's states to scrutinise their laws and procedures to make it easier for women to report such assaults.

Mexicans needed to hear a “loud and clear no; women’s personal space must not be violated,” Sheinbaum said.

She said she had experienced similar incidents of harassment when she was 12 years old while using public transportation to get to school.

“I decided to press charges because this is something that I experienced as a woman, but that we as women experience in our country,” she said.

Like her predecessor and political mentor, ex-president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum tries to maintain a connection with the people, frequently diving into crowds for selfies and handshakes.

Her security detail was not immediately visible in the close-shot video on Tuesday. Sheinbaum dismissed any suggestion that she would increase her security or change how she interacts with people.

According to Sheinbaum, she and her team had decided to walk from the National Palace to the Education Ministry to avoid a 20-minute car ride in city traffic.