Benito Jiménez and Guadalupe Irízar/Agencia Reforma
Wednesday, February 15, 2023 | 10:06
Mexico City.- Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that he will veto an opinion approved in San Lázaro that raises punishments for “insults” to the President considering that he does not need it.
“It is how I was surprised yesterday that they authorize in the Chamber that the one who insults the President will increase the punishment, he will have to pay two, three times more, I do not know who did that.
“I don’t need that, I didn’t promote it, I’m going to veto it, what for… that is, no, freedom of expression,” he commented at a conference at the National Palace.
A 1917 law, which punishes “insults” to the President of the Republic, was revived and hardened by the Morena majority in the Chamber of Deputies.
At the proposal of the Zacatecan deputy Bennelly Jocabeth Hernández Ruedas, the Governance Commission of the Chamber of Deputies approved yesterday an opinion that increases the punishments for “insults” to the federal President, the Cabinet Secretaries, Ministers, Governors, legislators and the Prosecutor General of the Republic.
According to what has been stated, the fines contemplated in this law that dates from the time of Venustiano Carranza should be increased because the current ones “do not inhibit the commission of crimes.”
The ruling did not touch the prison sentences currently considered, which reach up to two years, but converts the fines into Unit of Measurement and Update (UMAS) and raises them.
“The Law on Printing Crimes, in all fractions of Article 33, applies penalties and fines that mostly do not exceed two years in prison, and fines of 25 to 200 pesos, and this currently no longer works because it gives foot to commit the crimes of Article 3 that refer to public order.
“We reiterate that the fines that are applied are too lax, so they do not allude to discourage committing illegal acts, so they must be updated,” says the Morenista legislator.
“Otherwise there will be no coercion to apply sanctions and it is in contrast with the sanctions of the Criminal Code, so they must also be reformed,” he says.
