Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum is pressing charges against a drunken man who groped her chest in a shocking incident that was caught on camera.
The disturbing assault happened in broad daylight in the middle of a busy street in Mexico City, as Sheinbaum was meeting with supporters. The assailant was arrested and identified as Uriel Rivera Martínez, 33.
Viral video shows the man step up behind Sheinbaum before kissing her neck and cupping her breasts.
🇲🇽 Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was sexually assaulted on Tuesday, while interacting with passers-by on the streets of Mexico City. pic.twitter.com/8K2u1XMJyl
— FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) November 5, 2025
Sheinbaum was not accompanied by security at the time but had a single aide with her, the New York Times reported.
The incident has raised fresh debate about cultural norms in Mexico, where many women say sexual harassment is a common experience.
Sheinbaum, the first female president, said she decided to press charges over her groping to send a message that the mistreatment of women is never acceptable.
"My view is, if I don't file a complaint, what will happen to other Mexican women? If they do this to the president, what will happen to all women in our country?" Sheinbaum said at a news conference on Wednesday.
"I decided to press charges because this is something that I experienced as a woman, but that we as women experience in our country," she said. "I have experienced it before, when I wasn't president, when I was a student."
"A line must be drawn," she said.
Like her mentor, leftist president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), Sheinbaum is known for interacting closely with crowds.
Sheinbaum said that she would not allow the occurrence to change her habits.
"As for my security — we’re not going to change who we are. We can’t be far from the people, ” she said. “For now, our aides will continue supporting us, but we have to stay close to the people. To isolate ourselves, to ride around in a van — we have no known risk that would justify that.”
The violation of the president's own personal space also highlighted the poor security situation in Mexico, where drug cartels hold significant sway and violence is endemic.
The assault on Sheinbaum came days after the murder of a mayor in western Mexico set off angry backlash over Sheinbaum's crime policies. Like her leftist predecessor, who advocated "hugs, not bullets," Sheinbaum has rejected the use of force in favor of a sociological approach to crime.
“It starts from a deep conviction that security is not sustained by wars, but by justice, by development and by respect for life. Peace is not imposed by force, it is built with people, with communities and with the daily work of those who love their land,” she said.
