The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, said in her daily briefing this Wednesday that she had filed a complaint against the man who approached her on the street and harassed her in front of a stunned crowd and dozens of cameras that filmed the moment. “I decided to file a complaint, because it is something that I have experienced as a woman, but that all women in our country experience. I have already experienced it before, when I was not president (…). It is a crime in Mexico City. If I don’t file a report, in what conditions will all Mexican women remain? If they do this to the president, what will happen to all the other women in the country?” he said.
The president confirmed that the intoxicated man is already detained by the authorities in the Mexican capital. “This is something that shouldn’t happen, and I’m not saying this as a president, but as a woman, no one should violate our personal space,” Sheinbaum reiterated.
A few hours later, the Secretariat for Citizen Security (SSC) in Mexico City reported the arrest of a 33-year-old man, possibly responsible for harassing the president – and two other people – after another woman’s complaint raised alarm bells. “It was during a patrol that the officers were interviewed by a 25-year-old girl, who reported that she had been touched by a subject, described by her, so they protected her and installed a search device on site,” reads an information sheet.
The president also announced that together with the Secretary of Women, Citlalli Hernández, she will examine in which entities in the country this type of aggression – street harassment – is not considered a crime, in order to be able to equate it to the capital, since in Mexico City these behaviors are punishable by imprisonment of up to four years, as well as fines and the possibility of applying restraining orders.
Before being questioned on the matter, Sheinbaum recounted the episode she was the victim of last Tuesday. While walking through the historic center of the capital, she was approached by a man who touched her inappropriately and attempted to kiss her without her consent.
The president began – as happens in other cases of women who have suffered violence – by explaining the reasons why she decided to walk and not use her vehicle: “Why did I walk? Because it is shorter. We were late, if we had left by car we would have arrived 20 minutes later,” she said.
Furthermore, she said she wasn’t aware of what was happening until she saw the images of the moment the man approached her: “I didn’t realize it immediately. Until I saw the videos, that’s when I realized what had really happened,” she said.
In a statement made public last Tuesday night, Secretary Hernández condemned the episode and urged us not to normalize this type of action. “The president’s closeness to the Mexican people cannot be interpreted as an opportunity to invade their personal space or to commit any type of physical contact without consent. It is essential that men understand that these types of acts not only violate women, but are also a crime,” he said.
Pronounce
The violence that women suffer comes from the normalization that some men have regarding the invasion of our personal space and/or our body; They are the result of decades of sexist views.
Harassment, molestation, abuse and… pic.twitter.com/ViHg8evNHm
— Citlalli Hernández Mora (@CitlaHM) November 5, 2025
Along the same lines, the UN condemned the harassment suffered by the president and called for “not to normalize or minimize” violence against women in the country. Inegi’s data revealed that the percentage of women in Mexico who have experienced sexual harassment, groping, exhibitionism or attempted rape is 15.5%, five times higher than that of men, 3.2%, according to their 2024 survey.
Regarding criticism regarding his security, Sheinbaum confirmed that he will continue with the closeness he has defended since the beginning of his government: “We will not change our way of being, we cannot be far from the people, that would mean denying where we come from and how we are. And until now, our colleagues in the Assistantship will continue to support us.”
Like former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum has given up on having a Presidential General Staff (an elite military group charged exclusively with the security of presidents and their families). And instead she surrounds herself with members of the Assistant General Management, a team of people who accompany her in her daily activities.
The president has also publicly denounced the use of the images since the harassment she suffered from the media. And although he made it clear that he will not take legal measures against any media, he condemned the new victimization that has been made of his person through the repetition and diffusion of his image. “I take this opportunity to say that there are things that have limits (…) putting photography, which already goes beyond everything. It is a question of human quality, it is outside of all ethics and all morality. But also, if you catalog it, the Olympian Law or revictimization can also come into play”, he said.
