Man gropes Mexico president as she speaks with residents on the streets

[ad_1] Claudia Sheinbaum , the president of Mexico, has been groped by a person as she mingled with residents on the streets of Mexico Metropolis, elevating questions concerning the lack of presidential safety and the extent of sexual harassment confronted by the nation’s girls.

A video of the incident on Tuesday reveals a visibly drunk man attempting to kiss the president on the neck and embrace her from behind, as she removes his fingers and turns to face him, earlier than a authorities official steps in and locations himself between them.

As the person is steered away, Sheinbaum will be seen smiling stiffly and saying: “Don’t fear.”

State police later confirmed that the person had been arrested.

Commentators mentioned the incident confirmed that no girl is resistant to sexual harassment in Mexico .

“Even should you’re the president, any man believes he has the proper to the touch you,” said Catalina Ruiz-Navarro, a journalist for the feminist outlet Volcánicas. “After they ask what the patriarchy is – that is it.”

However the incident additionally highlighted the broader safety threat that Sheinbaum faces on the road, on condition that her safety element was not clearly seen within the video and it took seconds for anybody to intervene.

It comes simply days after Carlos Alberto Manzo Rodríguez, a well-liked mayor, was killed on the Day of the Useless celebrations in Uruapan, within the state of Michoacán, by a gunman who shot him seven instances at shut vary earlier than being killed himself.

Within the months prior, Manzo Rodríguez had publicly appealed to Sheinbaum on social media for assist to confront legal teams within the area.

Manzo Rodríguez was solely the newest official to be killed in Mexico, the place 37 candidates have been killed on the marketing campaign path earlier than the election in June 2024, and one other 10 municipal presidents have been killed since Sheinbaum’s authorities started on 1 October.

Regardless that it's native authorities which can be most often focused in Mexico, high-level officers will not be exempt from threat.

In 1994, the presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio Murrieta was gunned down at a rally within the border metropolis of Tijuana. Extra just lately, in 2020, the Jalisco cartel tried to assassinate Omar García Harfuch, Sheinbaum’s present safety minister, riddling his convoy with bullets in the midst of Mexico Metropolis.

Sheinbaum herself had a security scare final 12 months whereas campaigning within the state of Chiapas, when masked males stopped her automobile to ask her to deal with the violence within the state, earlier than letting her transfer on.

Thus far, Sheinbaum has saved the behavior of her well-liked predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who mingled with crowds and most popular a lighter diploma of safety – however such an incident may trigger her to rethink.

“Hopefully [the presidency will press charges], and the president will ship a transparent message: no man has the proper to kiss or contact a lady with out her consent,” wrote Alejandra Escobar, editorial director of Etcétera, a Mexican journal, on X . “Could this additionally serve for example for [her assistants]: it isn't acceptable for her to be so uncovered.”