(AFP)—Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called Wednesday for making sexual harassment a criminal offense nationwide after a man groped and tried to kiss her as she walked down the street.
The incident occurred Tuesday as Sheinbaum walked to an event near the presidential palace, shaking hands and taking pictures with people along the way, videos on social media showed.
The man approached Sheinbaum from behind, 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 intoxicated.
Sheinbaum, Mexico’s first female president, explained Wednesday that she decided to file a complaint to police when she realized the man continued to harass other women.
Authorities later reported that the man had been arrested.“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 her morning press conference.
The government will review whether this behavior “is a criminal offense in all states, because it should be a criminal offense and we are going to launch a campaign,” she added, acknowledging that she suffered similar harassment in her youth.
The 32 federal districts that make up the country each has its own criminal code, and not all of them include criminal penalties for such behavior.
Despite the incident, Sheinbaum treated the man politely, agreeing to take a picture with him, then patting him on the back.
“This person approached me completely drunk, I don’t know if he was on drugs,” she said. “It wasn’t until I saw the videos that I realised what had really happened.”
The complaint against the man was filed with the prosecutor’s office in Mexico City, where sexual harassment is punishable by law.
The incident also sparked criticism of the president’s security detail and denunciations of so-called macho attitudes that normalize unwelcome intrusions on women’s personal space and bodies.
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.
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