Mexico’s President, Claudia Sheinbaum is pressing charges against a man who she said was “drunk” and harassed her on Tuesday, calling the incident “an assault on all women.”
The man was arrested overnight, according to the Mayor, and is in custody at the Sex Crimes Investigation Unit.
The video showed a man approach Sheinbaum. He appeared to touch her breast and attempt to kiss her while bystanders in the central neighborhood of Zócalo watched. The incident ended when one of her top aides, Juan José Ramírez Mendoza, intervened.
The episode has sparked outrage online and renewed a debate over harassment and the safety of women in public life.
Police said preliminary findings link the individual to the alleged harassment of two other women that same day.
Sheinbaum, who is Mexico’s first female president, announced Wednesday that she was motivated to take legal action against the man, who she described as “completely drunk.”
I decided to press charges because this is something I experienced as a woman — something all women in our country experience,” she said. “No man has the right to violate that space,” she said.
She added that this was not the first time she had experienced harassment. Throughout her career, Sheinbaum has been candid about past harassment.
In 2021, as Mayor, she shared a video for International Women’s Day in which she recalls being harassed on public transportation at the age of 12 and being harassed by a professor when she was a student.
Sheinbaum, like her predecessor, has chosen not to maintain a Presidential Guard, which was dissolved in 2018.
A security analyst reportedly told CNN en Español that the decision left a gap in high-level protection:
“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.”
Sheinbaum defended her approach on Wednesday. “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.
The Secretariat for Women, part of Sheinbaum’s administration, condemned the incident on Tuesday, saying proximity to the public “cannot be used as an excuse to invade someone’s personal space or make physical contact without consent.”
The office urged victims to report incidents rather than dismiss them. “These forms of violence must not be trivialized; denouncing them is fundamental to justice and cultural change,” it wrote.