Mexican president presses expenses after man groped her on the road

[ad_1] MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was strolling by her metropolis’s capital this week, heading from one authorities workplace to a different, when she stopped to take selfies with a crowd of admirers.

A person approached from behind, slipped his arm round Sheinbaum’s shoulder, leaned in to plant a kiss on her neck and briefly grabbed her chest earlier than an aide pushed him away.

The groping incident, which was captured on video by bystanders Tuesday, sparked outrage nationally and put renewed concentrate on the rampant sexual harassment confronted by ladies right here.

Sheinbaum, who final 12 months was sworn in as Mexico’s first female leader , has seized the possibility to boost consciousness in regards to the situation.

“In the event that they do that to the president,” she requested Wednesday, “what should occur to all of the younger ladies within the nation?”

Talking at her day by day information convention, Sheinbaum mentioned that she had filed a prison grievance in opposition to her aggressor, whom authorities reported was drunk on the time of the incident and had been detained.

Sheinbaum mentioned her authorities may even overview state legal guidelines to make sure that road harassment is categorized as against the law all through Mexico and launch a marketing campaign to fight the phenomenon.

“I made a decision to file a grievance as a result of that is one thing ... all ladies in our nation expertise,” Sheinbaum mentioned. “I skilled it earlier than I used to be president. It shouldn’t occur. Nobody ought to violate our private area. No man has the precise to violate that area.”

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(Eduardo Verdugo / Related Press)

Like her populist predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum typically walks the streets with out bodyguards, saying she likes to be near the individuals.

However the apply has come below scrutiny given the handfuls of killings annually of Mexican political candidates and elected leaders. Over the weekend, the outspoken mayor of Uruapan, a metropolis in Michoácan state, was gunned down at a public occasion celebrating the Day of the Lifeless vacation regardless of being protected by armed police and members of the Nationwide Guard.

Tuesday’s incident in Mexico Metropolis provoked outrage throughout the nation, with many ladies saying it embodied the road harassment that's commonplace in lots of elements of the nation.

“If probably the most highly effective lady in Mexico skilled harassment, what can ladies who journey on public transportation or stroll alone every single day count on?” Congresswoman Ivonne Ortega wrote on X. “That is the truth that thousands and thousands of girls and women face day by day.”

Feminist social actions have gained floor in Mexico lately, sparked by the #MeToo motion in the USA and Mexico’s excessive charges of violence in opposition to ladies. Every spring, tons of of 1000's of protesters take to the streets to demand gender parity and insurance policies that defend ladies’s lives.

Sheinbaum’s landslide victory within the 2024 presidential election highlighted the huge strides made by ladies in Mexican politics, a phenomenon aided by a legislation requiring that no less than 50% of all candidates in federal, state and municipal elections are feminine.

Sheinbaum has often described her win as a victory for all ladies. “I didn't arrive alone,” she says. “All of us arrived.”

But violence in opposition to ladies persists, with a median of 10 ladies or women slain nationwide every day, in line with the federal government.

And road harassment remains to be pervasive. Just a few years in the past, the hashtag #MiPrimerAcoso — “my first harassment” — went viral, with tens of 1000's of girls sharing tales of the primary time they had been touched, stared at or verbally harassed within the streets.

Author Brenda Lozano mentioned on X that Tuesday’s incident wasn’t as a consequence of alcohol or Sheinbaum’s lack of safety. “The explanations she was harassed are patriarchy and sexism.”

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(Pedro Pardo /AFP by way of Getty Photographs)

A United Nations report discovered that just about half of Mexican ladies have been subjected to rape, groping or different types of sexual violence. A 2014 survey of feminine transit riders in 16 cities all over the world by the Thompson Reuters Basis discovered that Mexico Metropolis had the largest downside with sexual harassment, with 64% of respondents reporting having been victimized.

The Mexico Metropolis authorities has lengthy supplied women-only subway cars , and has even sought to fight harassment by arming feminine commuters with rape whistles. Some feminists oppose these measures, saying it places the onus on ladies to guard themselves as an alternative of pushing males to vary their conduct.

Mexico Metropolis Mayor Clara Brugada mentioned on Wednesday that the person who groped the president can be prosecuted to the total extent of the legislation.

“‘We’ve all arrived’ will not be a slogan,” mentioned Brugada, a member of Sheinbaum’s Morena get together. “It’s a dedication to not look the opposite means, to not permit misogyny to stay hidden in customized, to not settle for yet one more humiliation, yet one more abuse, yet one more femicide.”

Whereas there have been widespread expressions of help for Sheinbaum, there have been additionally some on social media who criticized her for making an excessive amount of of the incident. Others slammed Sheinbaum for smiling as she tried to slide away from the person’s grip, and for not pushing him away herself.

At her information convention, Sheinbaum mentioned she hadn’t realized the extent of the harassment till she noticed a video of what had occurred.

She had chosen to stroll between conferences moderately than take a automotive for a easy purpose. “We had been operating late,” she mentioned. “It was quicker.”

Additionally on Wednesday, Sheinbaum voiced help for Mexico’s Miss Universe consultant, Fátima Bosch, who made headlines when she walked out of the competitors Tuesday after being publicly berated by a male pageant official, who referred to as her “dumb.”