Mexico City, November 6, 2025 — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has pressed charges after a man groped her during a public walk near the presidential palace in Mexico City, an incident that has reignited national debate about women’s safety and harassment laws in the country.
The assault occurred on Tuesday as Sheinbaum, 63, greeted supporters while walking from the National Palace to the Education Ministry, a route she said was quicker on foot than by car. Video footage circulating online shows a man, apparently intoxicated, approaching the president from behind, putting his arm around her, and touching her hip and chest before attempting to kiss her neck. Sheinbaum removed his hands as a staff member intervened.
The man was later arrested, and Sheinbaum confirmed she had filed a formal complaint. Speaking at her daily news conference on Wednesday, the president said the decision was about more than her personal experience.
“If this happens to the president, what will happen to all the women in our country?” she said. “No one can violate our body and personal space.”
Sheinbaum, Mexico’s first female president, announced she would push for a nationwide review of sexual harassment laws. While harassment is criminalised in Mexico City, many of the country’s 32 states do not classify it as a crime. She pledged to launch a national campaign urging legal reforms to ensure uniform protections for women.
Rights groups and United Nations data highlight the scale of the issue: around 70 percent of Mexican women over the age of 15 have experienced harassment, and an average of ten women are murdered daily in the country.
The recent incident of sexual harassment against President Claudia Sheinbaum, which occurred in the Historic Center of Mexico City and in front of her team of assistants, is not only evidence of a momentary failure in the presidential security system: it reveals a profound institutional shortcoming that Mexico has been dragging along for almost a decade in terms of protection of senior executives and leaders at risk.
Beyond the media morbidity or social indignation, this fact should be analyzed from the technical point of view of risk management of public servants in public environments.
What we saw was not a simple mistake of a protector, but the reflection of a non-existent system, replaced by a symbolic model, disjointed and without doctrine, which has not evolved at the pace of contemporary threats, nor has it been structured according to the high-risk needs faced by the country. — Ivan Ivanovich
The President’s Security Team
The incident raised questions about the president’s security arrangements. Her protection detail was not visible at the time of the assault, prompting criticism of the close public access she maintains. However, Sheinbaum dismissed suggestions of tightening her security or reducing public interactions. “We have to be close to the people,” she said.
Even so, the video shows that no visible security guards were nearby when the man approached, allowing him to get close enough to touch the president. Walking through a busy public area without a secure perimeter left her exposed to risk. While the aide’s quick response helped, the delay in intervention suggests her protection team wasn’t positioned closely enough.
The lapse has sparked criticism of the overall planning and awareness surrounding the president’s movements that day.
Feminist activists and political leaders across Mexico condemned the attack as symbolic of the daily risks faced by women. Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada said, “If they touch the president, they touch all of us.”
Despite the incident, Sheinbaum reaffirmed her commitment to engaging openly with citizens and to advancing women’s rights through stronger legal protections.
