A video of the incident on Tuesday shows a visibly drunk man trying to kiss the president on the neck and embrace her from behind, as she removes his hands and turns to face him, before a government official steps in and places himself between them.
“This is something I experienced as a woman, but it is something that all women in our country experience,” said Sheinbaum in her daily press conference. “If I do not file a complaint, where does that leave all Mexican women? If they do this to the president, what happens to all the other women in the country?”
I wonder why they bother to include that he was drunk. That’s usually used to excuse (or at least soften) the man’s behaviour, and I wonder if that’s true here.
Having watched the video I suspect they’re just mentioning it because it’s descriptively accurate, he stumbles and behaves in a way that shows visible drunkenness. Journalists are trained to report facts and try to remain objective. The description might also help with accessibility concerns by providing a written description of an event caught on video. Regardless of the reason, I don’t think the description is meant to be dismissive.
Of course you’re right that alcohol is commonly used as a way to excuse sexual assault, but this article if anything has the opposite aim, so it wouldn’t make sense to include that detail if they are trying to make such a big point about the threat it posed.
For example, the headline uses loaded language like “groped” rather than more neutral language, there are ways they could have presented this that would have been more dismissive if that was their aim. Even describing it as a security incident shows they aren’t intending to be dismissive.