On November 3, 2025, footage circulated worldwide showing Mexico’s first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, being groped in public as she walked through her capital. Although surrounded by aides, security and cameras, a man grabbed her, attempted to kiss her neck, held her hip and touched her left breast before she pushed him away.
Her response was calm and politically astute: “If this happens to the president, what happens to all the other women?”
Not only did we witness a lapse in her security detail, the dangerous, impulsive action of a drunken man, it also manifested cultural indoctrination.
Sexual harassment is often not about desire; it is about power, entitlement, and the deeply embedded—often unconscious—belief that women’s bodies are public property. The man did not see Sheinbaum as a head of state, but as an object he felt entitled to touch.
Women in Trinidad and Tobago face similar realities. They are groped on streets and at fetes, harassed on public transport, sexualised in workplaces, and often blamed for the violence committed against them. These experiences point to systemic failures in prevention, enforcement and cultural accountability.
In 2019, Amelia Bleeker, associate programme management officer for the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, said women and girls in T&T overwhelmingly described the streets as unsafe. She warned that even catcalling creates fertile ground for more severe forms of gender-based violence, including rape and sexual assault. She also highlighted the experiences of asylum-seekers and migrant women, who report men boldly approaching them on the street to ask, “How much you cost?”
Just eight days ago, a 15-year-old Venezuelan girl was abducted and gang-raped while walking in El Socorro, San Juan. Such incidents raise urgent questions about public safety, deterrence, and accountability.
Perhaps it is time for our policymakers to examine stronger deterrents.
Some jurisdictions have adopted increasingly punitive legal responses. Florida, for example, is currently seeking the death penalty for 36-year-old Nathan Holmberg, who was indicted for the rape of multiple young children. In 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis passed legislation expanding capital punishment to include the rape of children under 12, directly challenging the US Supreme Court’s ruling in Kennedy v Louisiana, which held that the death penalty for child rape was unconstitutional in cases where the victim did not die. Last year, the state expanded capital eligibility to include human trafficking under aggravated circumstances.
Whether one supports such measures or not, these developments reflect a growing legal recognition that sexual violence constitutes a severe threat to social order and human rights.
Sheinbaum’s harassment demonstrated that not even power, visibility, and authority could shield a woman’s body from entitlement. She pressed charges to set a public example in defence of women’s dignity and legal rights.
According to United Nations data, Mexico ranks fourth among the most dangerous countries for women. Ten women and girls are killed there every day, yet only two per cent of cases result in convictions. Sheinbaum has since called for reforms to make reporting sexual violence easier and safer—an initiative that recognises the link between underreporting and impunity.
Boys are being raised in cultures that excuse harassment, minimise consent, or normalise male dominance. This internalises entitlement early. When society responds with jokes, disbelief, or victim-blaming, that entitlement is validated. Over time, harassment becomes so normalised it fades into the background of daily life. Behaviour is socially learned and institutionally reinforced. When harassment is minimised, excused, or treated as trivial, perpetrators are emboldened and victims are silenced.
The most dangerous myth is that sexual violence is rare. It is not. Most women in T&T have a story—many have several.
The psychological cost is profound. Chronic harassment produces hypervigilance, anxiety, depression, and burnout. When women are constantly calculating risk—what to wear, where to stand, how to respond—they expend mental energy that should be available for leadership, creativity, and public service. This is a hidden tax on women’s potential, and the country pays the price.
So, what must change?
First, sexual harassment must be recognised as a systemic failure, not an individual one. Laws matter, but culture determines whether they are enforced. When women report abuse and are dismissed or retraumatised, the message is clear: silence is safer.
Second, men and boys must be educated on consent, accountability and respect. Consent must be a social norm, not a legal afterthought. Male silence in the face of harassment is complicity.
Finally, we must stop asking women to trade visibility for safety. The solution is not to restrict women’s movement or leadership, but to adapt security, workplaces, and public spaces to protect them.
