On a bustling street in downtown Mexico City earlier this week, President Claudia Sheinbaum—the country’s first female leader—was groped by a man in broad daylight, an incident that has since become a flashpoint for national debate about gender violence, political division, and the deep-rooted machismo that women in Mexico face every day.
The episode, which occurred as Sheinbaum walked from the National Palace to the Education Ministry to avoid traffic, was captured on video and quickly went viral. The footage shows a man approaching Sheinbaum from behind, putting his arm around her, and kissing her on the neck. Her aide, Juan José Ramírez Mendoza, intervened immediately, pulling the man away. According to CNN, Mexico City police later linked the perpetrator to two other harassment incidents that same day.
Sheinbaum addressed the incident at her daily press briefing, stating that the man appeared intoxicated and that she had not realized what had happened until her aide stepped in. "This is something that I experienced as a woman, but also we as women experience in our country," she said, highlighting the shared reality of harassment for millions of Mexican women. Sheinbaum recounted that her first experience with such harassment occurred when she was just 12 years old, while using public transportation.
The president’s decision to press charges against her assailant was swift and deliberate. She used her platform to urge the remaining states in Mexico that have yet to classify sexual harassment as a crime to do so, and she called on authorities nationwide to make it easier for women to report sexual violence. "Women’s personal spaces must not be violated," Sheinbaum insisted, pressing for improved safeguards and more accessible reporting mechanisms.
Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada echoed the public outrage, writing on X (formerly Twitter), "If they touch the president, they touch all of us." The city’s Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection promptly arrested the man. According to the Associated Press, this incident has shone a bright light on the widespread gender violence that Mexican women confront daily, but it has also exposed deep political fractures in the country.
Political analysts and commentators note that what could have been a moment of national solidarity has instead become mired in partisan conflict. Opposition figures—particularly from the right—have accused Sheinbaum of staging the assault to distract from the recent assassination of Carlos Manzo, a local mayor and outspoken critic of organized crime. These claims, widely dismissed by feminists and sociologists, have only underscored the political polarization that colors public discourse in Mexico today.
Feminist voices have responded with both outrage and weary recognition. Caterina Camastra, a professor and feminist in Morelia, captured the mood succinctly: "Machismo in Mexico is so fucked up not even the president is safe." Her words, reported by The Guardian, resonate with many women who saw themselves in the viral video of Sheinbaum’s assault. Sociologist Ishtar Cardona, who specializes in cultural studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, described the incident as a fragile balancing act between maintaining the accessibility that Sheinbaum’s party prizes and ensuring her own safety. "It’s a fragile balance between being safe and being close to the people," Cardona explained, noting that if Sheinbaum withdrew from public engagement, she’d be accused of being fearful or unfit for office; if she continued, she’d be labeled reckless.
For many women, the incident has become a catalyst for sharing their own stories of harassment and assault. Cardona recounted to The Guardian her experience of being groped after a keynote speech, emphasizing that neither status nor power shields women from patriarchal violence. The normalization of such violence, she argued, is deeply entrenched in Mexican society. "For people that are raised in a very traditional way in which a patriarchal structure is normalised, a woman (like Sheinbaum), who is a scientist, a leftist, represents all that macho men, patriarchal status quo men, in Mexico, hate," Cardona said.
The numbers bear out the scale of the problem: In 2021, nearly half—49.7 percent—of Mexican women aged 15 and older reported experiencing sexual violence at some point in their lives, according to the country’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography. That same year, 34.7 percent reported experiencing physical violence. Yet, according to the think tank México Evalúa, a staggering 99.7 percent of sexual violence incidents went unreported in 2021, highlighting a culture of silence and impunity.
Sheinbaum’s assault has sparked a broader conversation about what it means to be a woman in public life in Mexico. The president, like her mentor and predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is known for wading into crowds, shaking hands, and posing for selfies. That openness, once a hallmark of her political style, now seems fraught with risk. Political opponents have seized on the incident, with some even suggesting that Sheinbaum brought the attack upon herself—a claim that feminist scholars and activists roundly reject.
"We have been breaking the taboo for about 10 years now but it’s very tough," Cardona told The Guardian. She described the precautions she takes every day before leaving home, from choosing her clothes to considering how to avoid unwanted attention. She also challenges her male students to reflect on whether they’ve ever had to make such calculations—almost always, the answer is no.
The dissolution of the Presidential General Staff, a military security body, by former President López Obrador has also come under renewed scrutiny. While Sheinbaum and her team chose to walk that day to avoid traffic, the absence of a dedicated security detail has raised questions about the adequacy of protections for public officials—particularly for the nation’s first female president.
The incident has also become a teaching moment, prompting renewed calls for cultural change. As Cardona urges her students to "embrace the anger," there’s a sense that the assault on Sheinbaum could mark a turning point in the fight against gender violence in Mexico. With the president herself now among the millions of women who have suffered harassment, the issue can no longer be dismissed as distant or abstract.
As the story continues to unfold, it remains to be seen whether the outrage sparked by the assault will translate into lasting legal and cultural reform. For now, the message from President Sheinbaum and her supporters is clear: No woman, regardless of her status or office, should have to endure such violations—and the time for change is long overdue.
