Mexican President Presses Charges After Being Groped While On The Street

Mexican President Presses Charges After Being Groped in the Street Mexico Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced Wednesday that she is pressing charges against a man who groped her while she was greeting people outside the presidential palace in the capital this week, the Washington Post reported. Video shared on social media shows that while Sheinbaum, 63, was walking from the presidential palace to the Education Ministry and interacting with supporters on Tuesday, a man approached her from behind. He put an arm around her, grabbed her breast, and tried to kiss her neck until a member of her team stepped between them. Sheinbaum is seen calmly but swiftly removing the man’s hands and walking away. The man had been bothering other women in the area before groping the president. Sheinbaum, who said she was unaware of the attack until she saw the video, filed a complaint with the Mexico City attorney general’s office. The man has been arrested, according to the BBC. Women’s rights groups noted that the attack demonstrates how ingrained machismo is in Mexican society, where women are routinely assaulted on the street in broad daylight. Sheinbaum’s decision to press charges was seen as a message that these crimes cannot go unpunished. “If I do not report the crime, what condition will all Mexican women be left in?” Sheinbaum said. “If they do this to the president, what will happen to all of the young women in our country?” Sheinbaum said Tuesday that sexual harassment should be criminalized across the country, adding that she would take action to address the problem. She had promised to tackle these crimes during her campaign. Data from 2022 found that seven in 10 Mexican females over the age of 15 have reported having experienced some kind of violence. Feminicides are also common in the country, and about 98 percent of gender-based murders go unpunished.