Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has decided to press criminal charges against a man who groped her while she was in the streets of Mexico City on Tuesday, Breitbart reported. Video of the event shows the alleged perpetrator casually slipping past her security and putting his hands on Sheinbaum.
The president announced her decision during a news conference on Wednesday. "I decided to file a complaint. This is something that I lived and it is something that women have to live with."
The brazen attack took place in broad daylight as Shainbaum made her way through the city for an event. The man can be seen at first putting his arm around her shoulder and nuzzling his neck before placing his hands on her breasts. A video of the incident was shared in a post to X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday.
đź“ą OcurriĂł frente a todos: un hombre se abalanzĂł e intentĂł besar a Claudia Sheinbaum mientras saludaba a la gente.
Si eso le pasa a la Presidenta de México, ¿qué pueden esperar las demás mujeres?
El acoso sigue normalizado. Urge respeto.#Acoso #Mujeres #México… pic.twitter.com/Tik1zl1vRN— GPSnoticias Oaxaca (@GPS_noticias) November 5, 2025
The incident highlighted a troubling security issue for the president of Mexico that has far-reaching implications. Not only did the alleged perpetrator put his hands on her, but it took several seconds for anyone in her entourage to even speak to the unidentified man.
One of her assistants seemed to chastise the man, but that didn't stop him from trying to approach her a total of three times. What's more, this seems to be a pattern in the nation where top politicians are not kept safe, including Carlos Manzo, the mayor of Uruapan, Michoacán, who was shot to death on Saturday.
In his case, a gunman was again able to circumvent any security personnel and fire several shots at Manzo despite having 14 National Guardsmen supposedly protecting him as part of his security detail. This came after the mayor was reportedly going after criminals and the Mexican drug cartels in his city.
The brazen murder sparked off days of riots in Michoacán and in the state capital, Morelia, CNN reported. The demonstrators used the slogan "enough of abuses and omissions" as their rallying cry, though the protests eventually turned violent, with some people breaching the city's Government Palace.
It wasn't just Manzo's murder that whipped citizens into a frenzy. Just last month, Bernardo Bravo ManrĂquez, who was a citrus farmer in Apatzingán, was found dead after speaking out in favor of more security for the nation's agricultural workers.
Unfortunately, Manzo's murder happened as the politician was attempting to clean up crime in the city. His suspected killer is thought to be a teen between the ages of 17 and 19 and may have been part of Mexico's organized crime community, though it's unknown since the suspect was killed after the incident.
Manzo was likely targeted for cracking down on these types of crimes and was often seen in public wearing a bulletproof vest. "Any criminal you encounter who is armed and resists arrest or attacks citizens, if you detect them during operations, you must take them down; there should be no leniency with them," Manzo said in a video posted to social media in May.
He was also critical of the Mexican president, whom he claimed was too soft on crime, as Sheinbaum often pushed for "peace and justice" rather than punishment for criminals. Like many on the American left, Sheinbaum has sought to address crime problems by addressing their root causes, such as poverty and a lack of education.
Now Sheinbaum has experienced the lawlessness for herself and has decided to press charges. However, the problems go far beyond political assassinations or public attacks on female politicians, and she and others in the government seem at a loss for how to stop it.
The fact that the female leader of the country is not safe on the streets speaks volumes about the situation for average citizens. The nation has been struggling for decades to get crime under control, but it seems the drug cartels and organized crime rings have a hold that's a strong as ever.
