Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she was pressing charges after being groped by a drunk man on the street.
On Tuesday, Sheinbaum and her security detail took a shortcut from the National Palace to the Ministry, where she stopped to meet and speak with passersby. However, as she spoke with constituents, a drunk man approached her, attempting to kiss her, then positioned his arms over her breasts, prompting her security to quickly step in and drag him away.
A video of the incident showed Sheinbaum with a stiff smile as the man grabbed her.
The president presented the incident as an attack on all women in the country.
“No man has the right to violate that space,” she said.
“I decided to press charges because this is something that I experienced as a woman, but that we as women experience in our country,” Sheinbaum proclaimed. “I have experienced it before, when I wasn’t president, when I was a student.”
Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada announced overnight that police had taken the drunk man into custody with the Sex Crimes Investigation Unit.
The incident occurred just days after anti-cartel crusader Uruapan Mayor Carlos Manzo was assassinated while out in public. Security experts have raised concerns about Sheinbaum’s personal security, as she is protected only by a small team of aides, following the disbanding of the Mexican Presidential Guard by her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in 2018.
“After the dissolution of the Presidential Guard, no specialized protection system was rebuilt. Sheinbaum relies on a small team of aides, not a professional perimeter security unit,” security analyst Raúl Benítez-Manaut told CNN.
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The president reaffirmed her laid-back approach on Wednesday despite the harassment.
“We can’t stay far from the people — that would deny who we are. Our aides will continue to accompany us, but we must remain close to citizens,” she said.
