Tepid reaction in Mexico to groping of president shows country has ‘normalized gender violence’: expert

The tepid and partisan domestic reaction to the apparent sexual assault Tuesday of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reveals how normalized gender violence has become in the country, according to experts. 

Sheinbaum said Thursday she had sent a letter to Mexico City’s attorney general Wednesday outlining a criminal complaint against the man, identified as Uriel Rivera Martinez, 33. 

Widely circulated cell phone video showed the man groping and trying to kiss Sheinbaum as she walked from the National Palace to the Ministry of Education. 

In Canada, an incident like this would likely be investigated as a sexual assault because it involves unwanted sexual grabbing and fondling.

While the incident made international headlines, it played out as a secondary news item domestically. It was largely framed as a failure by Sheinbaum’s security, which allowed a man to touch the president days after the high-profile assassination of Carlos Manzo, a popular mayor in the agricultural state of Michoacán. 

“It shows how much we have normalized gender violence in this country, and that even [when] we have such strong evidence of harassment in the streets and harassment toward the president of the country, we minimize its effects,” said Amneris Chaparro Martínez, a director and researcher with the Centre for Research and Gender Studies with the National Autonomous University of Mexico. 

“That kind of shows you the attitude that in this country we tend to have about issues related to women.” 

During Sheinbaum’s Thursday morning press conference, Minerva Citlalli Hernández Mora, the Secretary for Women, said that there were currently over 25,000 open investigations involving sexual violence against women. 

Sheinbaum and Hernández Mora also announced they would launch a plan on Nov. 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, to strengthen the institutional response to this type of violence across the country.

“What we want to legislate … is for women to really have a space to make complaints that is agile, expedited and allows for real investigations that will lead to jail terms,” said Sheinbaum.

‘Light along the path’

When she saw the video of the incident, Chaparro Martínez said she realized even the president of the country was not safe from harassment in public spaces because she is a woman.  

“No one is asking, ‘Why are men harassing women in 2025?’ They say this man was on drugs or that he was drunk, but that is not an excuse,” she said.

Local reports claimed he was drunk during the incident.

Estefania Vela Barba, executive director of Intersecta, a feminist human rights organization based in Mexico City, said the gender violence inherent in the incident against Sheinbaum has also been distorted and diluted by the political polarization in the country. 

Commentary circulated on social media questioning whether the event was staged to change the channel on the immediate political crisis triggered by Manzo’s assassination, which saw an explosion of violent protests in his home state of Michoacan. 

“Wow, not even if it’s on video and it happens to the president you’re going to believe it,” said Vela Barba. 

“For me, what I saw is what millions of women live daily.”

Vela Barba said she was heartened by the way Sheinbaum immediately confronted the incident, head on, during her Wednesday morning press conference, calling out what happened to her and saying she’d be seeking accountability through the justice system. 

“It was really important for her to articulate this incident to give it visibility, that this is a problem,” said Vela Barba. 

“To see the president herself who is naming it, it gives us light along the path. I found it empowering that the president condemned this act.”