Mexico - August 2026

Domestic violence was thrown into the spotlight in late June after the wife of the former CEO of state-run oil company Pemex denounced physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her husband. The public nature of the denouncement and the alleged perpetrator has drawn attention to a problem that affects many Mexican women each year. President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has pledged to crack down on gender violence, called for zero impunity in the case, with the former Pemex head arrested on 7 July.

Videos showing the abuse were posted to accounts on YouTube and X on 26 June by María Felicia Jiménez, the wife of Víctor Rodríguez Padilla, an academic who served as Pemex CEO from October 2024 to May 2026. The videos, which appear to be taken from a home security system and are dated 15 March 2026, show Rodríguez violently beating, manhandling, and pushing Jiménez around a living room for a period of around 10 minutes.

In interviews given following the publication of the videos, Jiménez has stated that the physical abuse began in 2022. As well as the incident shown in the videos, she said that physical assaults occurred on two other occasions. In a letter sent to journalist Azucena Uresti, Jiménez also describes suffering emotional and psychological abuse at the hands of Rodríguez, who she says she will divorce. She has said she feared coming forwards due to her husband’s links with powerful members of the legislature, judiciary, and federal and state governments, but she had done so as “this is a government led by women”.

After a few days of silence, Sheinbaum spoke out in relation to the case on 29 June. She called for the “full weight of the law” to be applied and pledged “zero impunity” in cases of violence against women. She said that the attorney general’s office in Morelos state – where the incident in the videos took place – had opened an investigation and that her government would not protect anyone found guilty of a crime. Her government also announced that Rodríguez would not be taking up a new position as head of the institute for renewable energy research (Ineel) at the state electricity firm (CFE) as planned, claiming his appointment had not yet been finalised.

Despite his arrest for “probable participation in events constituting domestic violence”, he was reportedly released from pretrial detention on 14 July. Scrutiny will remain high on whether Rodríguez receives any special treatment. He is a long-term colleague of Sheinbaum, with the president highlighting their shared history in academia when announcing him as Pemex head in August 2024. He has also worked as an adviser to many current and former members of the judiciary and legislature, including Senator Laura Itzel Castillo, the incoming women’s minister, when she served on Pemex’s board.

Nevertheless, Castillo posted on social media that she had asked the women’s ministry to support Jiménez in her complaint. She stated that, when she takes up the women’s minister role on 1 September, she will “work to ensure that no act of aggression goes unpunished”. Sheinbaum’s creation of the women’s ministry was hailed as a step towards improving women’s rights and addressing issues such as gender violence. However, the ministry has been with only an acting head since the previous women’s minister, Citlalli Hernández, was moved to head up Morena’s electoral commission in April. Sheinbaum selected Castillo to replace her, but only after her term as head of the senate’s presiding board concludes, with the gap interpreted by some as a lack of prioritisation of the role.

Statistics

The national public security executive secretariat (SESNSP) recorded 113,294 instances of domestic abuse during the first five months of 2026, up from 111,219 recorded in the same period of 2025. The highest number of cases occurred in Mexico City (11,845), Estado de México (11,317), Nuevo León (10,080), and Guanajuato (7,308), accounting for 35.8% of all cases. The same SESNSP data shows that the rate of domestic violence between January and May this year was 84.29 per 100,000 people. The highest rates were in the states of Colima (227.47 per 100,000), Coahuila (176.49), and Baja California (159.12).