Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has said the harassment she suffered when a drunk man groped her in the street is an assault on all women.
A video posted on social media shows a man coming up to her when she is speaking to supporters near the National Palace in the capital, Mexico City. He approaches her from behind, leans in to kiss her and appears to put his hands on her.
Ms Sheinbaum used her daily press briefing on Wednesday to say she had pressed charges against the man.
Mexico City mayor Clara Brugada had announced overnight that the man had been arrested.
When Ms Sheinbaum was elected, she said that it wasn’t just her coming to power – it was all women.
“If this is done to the president, what is going to happen to all of the young women in our country?” she said on Wednesday.
Ms Sheinbaum also called on states to scrutinise their laws and procedures to make it easier for women to report such assaults.
She said Mexicans needed to hear a “loud and clear, no, women’s personal space must not be violated”.
The incident immediately raised questions about the president’s security, but Ms Sheinbaum dismissed any suggestion she would increase it or alter how she interacts with people.
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Ms Sheinbaum also said on Wednesday that she had similar experiences of harassment when she was 12 years old and using public transport to travel to school, noting she understands it is a widespread issue.
“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.
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Andrea Gonzalez Martinez, 27, who works for Mexican lender Nacional Monte de Piedad, said she has been harassed on public transport, with a man following her home in one case.
“It happens regularly, it happens on public transportation,” she said. “It’s something you experience every day in Mexico.”
A World Health Organization report this year revealed that one in three women in the Americas has experienced physical or sexual violence from a partner or by a third party.
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In the first seven months of this year, cases of femicide in Mexico decreased by almost 40% compared to the same period in 2024, and intentional injuries against women dropped by 11%, according to figures from the Federal Security Secretariat.
From 2019 to 2024, only 20% to 30% of women experiencing violence in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Honduras, Peru and Uruguay used state services specifically designed for them, according to a report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) on femicide in the region.
