President Claudia Sheinbaum groped: How unsafe is Mexico for women?

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Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has launched an probe of Mexico’s anti-sexual harassment laws aft she was groped portion speaking to supporters connected Tuesday.

In a video which went viral connected societal media, a middle-aged antheral tin beryllium seen putting his limb astir the president, 63, touching her thorax and attempting to buss her. Sheinbaum tin beryllium seen pushing his hands distant from her earlier a subordinate of her unit steps in, arsenic her information item was not contiguous astatine the time.

What has Sheinbaum said?

Following the incident, the president said she would beryllium reviewing nationwide laws against intersexual harassment.

In a quality conference, Sheinbaum expressed choler astir the occupation of intersexual harassment successful Mexico. “I accidental this not arsenic president, but arsenic a pistillate and connected behalf of Mexican women,” she added.

“It should not happen. No 1 tin interruption our idiosyncratic space, nary one. No antheral has the close to interruption that space; the lone mode is with the woman’s consent,” she added.

The president pointed retired that the antheral had committed a common-law offence successful Mexico City and called connected the Secretariat of Women to analyse whether it was a transgression offence successful each states, arsenic well.

Mexico City is simply a national territory and is not counted arsenic 1 of Mexico’s 31 states, whose laws vary.

Sheinbaum, Mexico’s archetypal pistillate president, called for a nationwide run to beryllium launched and for each states to travel unneurotic “beyond authorities … defending the integrity of Mexican women”.

“Just arsenic it is my work to pb the federation by the volition of the Mexican people, erstwhile I said that we each arrived, it besides has to bash with this: that, indeed, girls consciousness harmless and escaped successful our country,” she added.

The president besides separately ruled retired expanding her information item and said, “We person to beryllium adjacent to the people.”

Is intersexual harassment a transgression successful Mexico?

It varies.

While femicide is considered a transgression crossed each Mexican states and successful Mexico City, intersexual harassment is not considered a transgression successful each states.

According to the national penal code, intersexual harassment is defined arsenic a idiosyncratic who “for lewd purposes, repeatedly harasses a idiosyncratic of immoderate sex”.

But of Mexico’s 32 national entities – Mexico City positive 31 states – lone 16 criminalise intersexual harassment.

These include:

Baja California Sur
Sinaloa
Nayarit
Jalisco
Coahuila
Tamaulipas
San Luis Potosí
Guanajuato
Queretaro
State of Mexico
Guerrero
Puebla
Veracruz
Campeche
Quintana Roo
Mexico City

How person radical successful Mexico responded?

The Secretariat of Women, a caller authorities ministry which was launched astatine the commencement of this twelvemonth nether Sheinbaum, who was elected a twelvemonth before, condemned the assault.

In a statement, it said that it is “essential that men recognize that these types of acts not lone interruption women but are besides a crime”.

“These types of unit should not beryllium trivialised; connected the contrary, denouncing them is cardinal to achieving justness and contributing to a taste shift, which besides involves however they are addressed by the media and successful our mundane conversations,” the ministry said.

“We telephone for this lawsuit not to beryllium utilized to re-victimise immoderate woman, girl, oregon teen who has suffered an enactment of violence; and we impulse accepted media outlets and integer platforms not to reproduce contented that threatens the integrity of women, adolescents, and girls,” it added.

Veronica Cruz from the feminist corporate Las Libres (The Free Ones) told the AFP quality bureau that, each day, women are “experiencing this concern of harassment, of intimidation”.

Cruz added that the information of “it happening adjacent to the president of the Republic” was indicative of the standard of the problem.

How superior is unit against women successful Mexico?

A study by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography revealed that, successful 2021, astatine slightest 70.1 percent of Mexican women aged 15 years and implicit had experienced immoderate benignant of unit astatine slightest erstwhile passim their life, including sexual, psychological, economical and carnal violence.

In 2023, the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN ECLAC) reported 1.3 femicides per 100,000 women successful Mexico, translating to the sidesplitting of 852 women, oregon much than 2 women each day.

Mexico is not unsocial successful Latin America erstwhile it comes to precocious femicide rates. In Brazil, determination are 1.4 cases per 100,000 women, portion the figures are adjacent higher successful the Dominican Republic – 2.4 – and Honduras – 7.2.

While femicide rates person declined somewhat implicit the past 3 years, successful May, the deficiency of extortion for Mexican women successful nine was brought to the fore erstwhile again pursuing the fatal shooting of a young pistillate portion she was livestreaming connected TikTok.

Valeria Marquez was streaming video to her assemblage of 113,000 followers from a quality salon successful Guadalajara, Jalisco, erstwhile she was killed by an unseen antheral who fled by motorbike.

So far, nary 1 has been arrested, but the Jalisco authorities prosecutor’s bureau said the lawsuit was being investigated.

In September 2017, protests erupted aft the assemblage of 19-year-old Mara Fernanda Castilla was recovered adjacent a motel successful the authorities of Puebla. She had gone missing portion utilizing a ride-hailing app.

Puebla authorities said they judge a operator from the taxi-hailing application, Cabify, had killed her.

In 2020, the assemblage of seven-year-old Fatima Aldrighett was discovered with signs of maltreatment aft she had disappeared aft leaving schoolhouse successful Mexico City.

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