Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday she filed a complaint against a man who groped her and tried to kiss her as she walked between meetings in the capital city, a day after a video of the incident went viral.
“If this happens to the president, where does that leave all the young women in our country,” said Sheinbaum, Mexico’s first female president. “No man has the right to abuse women’s personal space.”
Video of the incident quickly ricocheted across the Internet before being taken down by some accounts, underscoring for many in Mexico the insecurity women face in a country steeped in machismo and gender-based violence.
It has also raised questions about Sheinbaum’s security detail. Like her predecessor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Sheinbaum travels with minimal security and makes herself widely available to the public, including wading into crowds of people.
She said on Wednesday that she did not plan to change that practice, saying “we have to be close to the people.”
The incident happened on Tuesday in the capital’s historic centre as Sheinbaum was greeting members of the public while making the short walk from Mexico’s national palace to the Ministry of Education.
The video shows a middle-aged man putting his arm around Sheinbaum, touching her chest and attempting to kiss her. She moves his hands away before a member of her staff steps between them.
Sheinbaum said the man appeared to be drunk.
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