Mexican president slams Google for renaming Gulf of Mexico
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has sent a formal letter to Google objecting to its decision to follow President Donald Trump’s order to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of the Americas.”
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MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced on Wednesday, Nov. 5, that she had filed a complaint against a man who groped her and tried to kiss her as she walked between meetings in the capital, a day after a video of the incident went viral.
Sheinbaum, Mexico’s first female president, said: “If something like this happens to the president, where does that leave young women in this country?” “Men have no right to invade women’s personal space.”
Video of the incident quickly went viral on the internet and was removed by some accounts, but for many in Mexico it highlighted the insecurities faced by women in a country steeped in masculinity and gender-based violence.
Questions have also been raised about Sheinbaum’s security details. Like his predecessor, Andres Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum has been widely visible to the public, traveling with minimal security and often wading into crowds.
She said on November 5 that she had no intention of changing this practice, saying, “We have to stand by our people.”
The incident occurred on Nov. 4 in the capital’s historic center, as Sheinbaum was greeting citizens during a 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 pushes his hand away before one of the staff members steps between her hands. The president’s security personnel do not appear to be near her at this time.
Sheinbaum said the man appeared to be intoxicated.
Re-victimization
She also criticized the Mexican newspaper Reforma for publishing an image of her being groped by a man, saying it was “re-victimization” and crossed an ethical line.
“The use of images is also a crime,” Scheinbaum said, pointing to legislation against digital violence. “We are waiting for an apology from the newspaper company.”
The federal government’s women’s ministry, created under Sheinbaum, issued a statement on Nov. 4 encouraging women to report violence but asking the media “not to reproduce content that violates women’s integrity.”
Still, feminist activists have harshly criticized Sheinbaum in the past for not doing enough to address violence against women. In particular, it points out that the prosecution and investigation of murder cases in which women are killed because of their gender are lackluster.
According to government data, Mexico recorded 821 murders in 2024. Although 501 murders have been recorded through September of this year, many advocates say that number is likely a significant underestimate.
criminalize harassment
Ana Yeri Perez, director of the National Citizens Observatory on Femicide, said Sheinbaum’s molestation has put the issue of violence against women back on the national agenda.
“This is reprehensible, it has to be condemned, it has to be named, because it’s an act of violence. But it’s also an important event and it’s symbolic of what women go through every day,” she said.
Sheinbaum said sexual harassment should be a “criminal crime punishable by law,” adding that he had asked Mexico’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs to review each state’s legal code.
Sexual harassment is a crime not only in Mexico City but also in about half of Mexico’s states.
Local media identified the man who assaulted Sheinbaum as Uriel Rivera, and he was arrested at 9 p.m. on Nov. 4, according to a national security filing.
(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison; Additional reporting by Raul Cortes and Sarah Morland; Editing by Emily Green and Bill Berkrot)
