During a visit to a school in Tizayuca, Hidalgo, Juan Leonardo Pérez approached President Claudia Sheinbaum to report the sexual abuse suffered by his eight-year-old son at the hands of the school director. The incident occurred in December 2024 and has sparked allegations of corruption against local authorities. Pérez claims to be receiving death threats and a cover-up of evidence.
Juan Leonardo Pérez, father of an eight-year-old boy, confronted President Claudia Sheinbaum on January 6, 2026, during her visit to a school in Tizayuca, Hidalgo, to denounce a case of sexual abuse against his son. The abuse took place in December 2024, when the school director entered the bathroom with the child, pulled down his pants and underwear, and touched his intimate areas, as the boy recounted to his parents through gestures, indicating pain in those regions.
Pérez went to the school immediately, where he reviewed two days' worth of recordings showing the director entering the bathroom multiple times with his son. The director's excuse was that he had dirty hands, despite sinks being outside and separate toilets for students and staff. Over the year, the investigation made no progress: the case file was lost, along with abuse evidence.
Faced with inaction, Pérez led blockades on the Mexico-Pachuca highway with neighbors. During one, Hidalgo's subprosecutor Hiram González approached to demand attention from the Public Ministry, but the file vanished afterward. Pérez accuses corruption in Hidalgo authorities and the Secretariat of Public Education (SEP), headed by Mario Delgado. He has an audio recording of González calling Delgado to request no SEP procedures at the school.
In the video of the encounter with Sheinbaum, circulating on social media, the president tells him: “I'll come right now, I'll come right now. I'll listen to you right now.” However, Pérez did not speak to her directly; later, prosecutor Ernestina Godoy contacted him for follow-up. “I wanted to talk to her for my family's safety, as I'm being threatened with death, and that's why I approached the president to denounce the Hidalgo subprosecutor for corruption,” Pérez explained in an interview with Azucena Uresti.
