Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was groped by a man while walking through the historic center of the country's capital, DPA reported, citing local media, BTA reported.
A video of the incident, which went viral on social media, shows the man approaching the president from the side, putting his arm around her and trying to kiss her. He then tried to grope her breasts before being pushed away by a police officer and arrested.
The prosecutor's office has filed charges against the man for sexual harassment.
Today, Sheinbaum categorically emphasized that this is not the first time she has been the victim of such harassment, the Associated Press reported.
“I decided to press charges because this is something I have experienced as a woman […] before, when I was not president, when I was a student,“ she said.
The incident immediately raised questions about the president's safety, as the man approached her with ease. Like his predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum does not use soldiers from the military unit designated to protect presidents.
At the same time, the incident also raises questions about sexual violence against women in Mexico.
“If they grope the president, they grope all of us. Today, when the president is harassed just because she is a woman, we are all harassed“, wrote the mayor of the capital, Clara Brugada, on the social network “Ex“.
Sheinbaum, 63, is the first female president of Mexico. According to a study by the National Institute of Statistics, almost half of all women in Mexico have experienced sexual assault at least once in their lives. Women's rights are one of the central themes of the president's policies.