Mexico’s Sheinbaum Refuses to Shield Former Pemex Chief as Abuse Video Surfaces
By Stefanie Eschenbacher
MEXICO CITY, June 29 (Reuters) – Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum declared Monday that her government would offer no protection to anyone, following the emergence of a home-surveillance video appearing to show the former chief of state oil company Pemex, Victor Rodriguez, violently abusing his wife.
The five-minute clip, posted to YouTube on Friday by a woman identifying herself as Maria Felicia Jimenez—Rodriguez’s wife—is dated March 15, 2026, and appears to have been captured by a living-room security camera. Reuters has not independently verified the footage.
At the time of the alleged attack, Rodriguez still held the top job at Pemex. He announced his departure on May 14 in a joint video with Sheinbaum, where she thanked him for his service and said his resignation followed a timeline he had set as a condition for taking the role.
In the video, reviewed by Reuters, Rodriguez—partially shirtless—is seen grabbing a woman by the neck, pulling her hair, shoving her onto a couch, and holding her down. A young boy appears briefly at the beginning before fleeing the frame.
Rodriguez could not be reached for comment. A statement posted Friday on an X account believed to be his said he had stepped back from all public roles while an investigation proceeds and was open to cooperating with authorities.
“Let the law be applied; we will not protect anyone,” Sheinbaum said during her regular morning news conference. “There can be no violence against women.” She added that Rodriguez would never serve in another position within her administration.
The incident strikes at the heart of Sheinbaum’s political brand. Since taking office, she has repeatedly championed substantive equality, a gender perspective, and the right of women to a life free from violence, even declaring an “era of women.” The video, and her close relationship with Rodriguez—a friend from their student days—threatens to overshadow that message and raises uncomfortable questions about judgment and accountability at the highest levels.
Rodriguez has been one of Sheinbaum’s most trusted allies, sharing a personal and professional bond stretching back decades. His swift exit from Pemex in May was initially framed as a planned transition, but the abuse allegations now cast that departure in a darker light. After leaving Pemex, he was tapped to lead the state energy transition institute INEEL, though the Energy Ministry later said the appointment was never formalized.
“Breaking my silence meant losing my job, my money, having nowhere to live, and having my children taken from me, simply because of his closeness to the highest spheres of power—the presidency, governors, members of Congress, secretaries of state,” reads a statement accompanying the video on YouTube. Jimenez added: “This is a government led by women, so I am asking for help and for the necessary measures to be taken to protect me and my children who are minors.”
The Attorney General’s office for the state of Morelos said on X on Friday that it had opened an investigation into suspected criminal acts stemming from a video “in which a violent act against a woman is observed.”
The case is likely to fuel broader debate about Mexico’s record on gender-based violence, already among the highest in Latin America. For Sheinbaum, who campaigned on a platform of feminist change, the scandal represents both a test of her rhetoric and a potential turning point for her administration’s credibility on human rights.
(Reporting by Stefanie Eschenbacher; Additional reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez, Raul Cortes and Aida Palaez-Fernandez; Editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Bill Berkrot)