Mexico president's rivals cry foul as she uses groping incident to address gender violence

The groping of Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum on a downtown street shone a bright light on the gender violence women face every day, but the country's political polarization has tarnished what under other circumstances would seem a natural moment for national solidarity, analysts say.

The president has tried to use the assault to send a clear message that such behavior is not acceptable. She has explained why she decided to press charges against the drunk man; she used her bully pulpit to pressure the remaining states that don't have sexual harassment on the books as a crime; and she talked about the need to make it easier for women to report such crimes.

But almost immediately political opponents accused her of using the incident to distract from another burning issue in Mexico: political violence. The previous weekend, a popular mayor in the western state of Michoacan was gunned down in public during Day of the Dead festivities. Protests against the violence were happening in several cities in the state and Sheinbaum was under pressure to offer new solutions for the state's persistent violence.