The Mexican Congress has expanded the powers of the presidential figure. The Chamber of Deputies approved the reform to the Amnesty Law this Wednesday night. The modification empowers the president to commute sentences and criminal proceedings in cases “relevant to the Mexican State”, directly and regardless of the seriousness of the crime they have committed. The president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has announced that he will use these modifications to the law that he himself promoted to resolve cases such as the disappearance of the 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School in Iguala, Guerrero. The legal reforms are awaiting publication in the Official Gazette of the Federation for their entry into force.
This reform to the Amnesty Law expands the power of the presidential figure to release or pardon people, now without intermediaries. Until now, the creation of an amnesty commission dependent on the Ministry of the Interior was established, empowered to analyze each case, upon request, as a requirement to grant the benefit.
“By exclusive determination of the person holding the Executive Branch, the benefit of the amnesty may be granted directly, without being subject to the procedure established in this order,” establishes the new article that has been added to the order. The creditors of the direct presidential pardon will be those people who provide verifiable and useful elements to know the truth of the facts in cases that are relevant to the Mexican State.
Morena legislators and allies have defended the modification — the opposition considers it unconstitutional. They maintain that the objective of this new reform is to guarantee the right to the truth and that the direct and indirect victims can know the events by which they were affected, as an example, the disappearance of students in Iguala, Guerrero, as López Obrador advanced in the days prior to the discussion of the reform. “Some of you surely have relevant information that, thanks to the pact of silence, you hide from the victims. That is why we understand that they oppose this reform. Some of you fear being linked,” said Morena legislator Jesús Madriz during the legislative debate on Wednesday night.
It is the third reform this week that the opposition announces that it will challenge before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN). Because it is a legal modification, it only requires a simple majority, that is, half plus one, Morena and its allies have them. Given the impossibility of stopping in the Legislature, the opposition's only bet is the path of unconstitutionality. “It is inadmissible because it allows the president of the republic to use the figure of power to free his friends, his colleagues, his associates, his accomplices. It doesn't matter if they are murderers or drug traffickers,” said deputy Enrique Sosa on behalf of the PAN bench.
“The problem is that new presidents will come after him. Good and bad, there will be tyrants. Don't they realize that by granting this to the Executive they are giving him all the elements he needs to establish a dictatorship,” the PAN member launched. The disqualifications, insults and insults between the ruling majority and the opposition continued for more than four hours of debate. “They lie when they say that this reform is to empower the federal Executive, that it is a concentration of power, that it will become an all-embracing being and that it violates the powers of Congress.” […]. Don't come and say that drug traffickers, kidnappers, rapists and I don't know how many other lies are going to be released. It is a power solely and exclusively for relevant cases of the Mexican State,” said Benjamín Robles of the PT bench.
Subscribe to the EL PAÍS Mexico newsletter and to whatsapp channel and receive all the key information on current events in this country.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_
#Congress #approves #reform #expands #president39s #power #forgive #types #crimes