While Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke with citizens in the street in Mexico City’s historic downtown on Tuesday, a man who appeared to be inebriated stepped up behind her and touched her before a government official intervened.
The man approached Sheinbaum, put his arm around her shoulder, and with the other hand touched her hip and chest, while attempting to kiss her neck.
A member of the presidential security detail pulled away the man, who appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Despite his behaviour, Sheinbaum treated the man politely, agreeing to take a picture with him, then patting him on the back. Security authorities later reported that the man had been arrested.
In a video circulating widely on social platforms, the man appeared to lean in for a kiss and touch the president’s body with his hands. She gently pushed his hands away, maintaining a stiff smile as she turned to face him. She could be heard to say in part, "Don’t worry.”
The president’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the incident.
The head of Mexico's Ministry of Women — a department created by Sheinbaum — commented on incident. "We condemn the act that our president experienced today," Minister Citlali Hernandez said in a post on X that also slammed what she called macho attitudes that normalize unwelcome intrusions on women's personal space and bodies.
The events highlight a latent problem in Mexico. Some 70 percent of Mexican women aged 15 and over experience at least one incident of sexual harassment in their lives, according to data from UN Women.
Sheinbaum, like her predecessor and political mentor ex- President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, tries to maintain a connection with the people, frequently diving into crowds for selfies and handshakes.
Her security detail was not immediately visible in the close shot video Tuesday.
It was an unnerving scene in a week when Sheinbaum has repeatedly had to address questions about political violence following the public assassination of a mayor in western Michoacan state.
On Tuesday, Sheinbaum met with the mayor's widow.
Agencies