MEXICO CITY: Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday she had filed a complaint against a man who harassed her and tried to kiss her as she walked between meetings in the capital, a day after a video of the incident went viral.

“If this happens to the president, where does that leave all the young women in our country,” said Sheinbaum, Mexico’s first woman president. “No man has the right to abuse women’s personal space.”

Video of the incident quickly ricocheted across the internet before being taken down by some accounts, underscoring for many in Mexico the insecurity women face in a country steeped in machismo and gender-based violence.

It has also raised questions about Sheinbaum’s security detail. Like her predecessor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Sheinbaum travels with minimal security and makes herself widely available to the public, including wading into crowds of people.

She said on Wednesday that she did not plan to change that practice, saying “we have to be close to the people”.

The incident happened on Tuesday in the capital’s historic centre as Sheinbaum was greeting the public while making the short walk from Mexico’s national palace to the ministry of education.

The video shows a middle-aged man putting his arm around Sheinbaum, touching her chest and attempting to kiss her. She moves his hands away before a member of her staff steps between them.

The president’s security detail did not appear to be near her at the moment.

Sheinbaum said the man appeared to be drunk.

Blasts newspaper for ‘re-victimisation’

She also blasted Mexican newspaper Reforma for publishing images of the man attacking her, saying she considered it a “re-victimisation” and that it crossed an ethical line.

“The use of the image is also a crime,” Sheinbaum said, pointing to legislation against digital violence. “I am waiting for an apology from the newspaper.”

The women’s ministry, created under Sheinbaum, issued a statement on Tuesday encouraging women to report violence against them, but asking media outlets “not to reproduce content that violates the integrity of women”. Still, feminist activists have sharply criticised Sheinbaum in the past for not doing enough to address violence against women.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2025