Martha Martínez and Claudia Salazar / Reform Agency
Tuesday, February 14, 2023 | 19:06
The Governance Commission of the Chamber of Deputies approved an opinion that almost triples the fines for “insulting” the President of the Republic.
The bill that reforms various provisions of the Law on Printing Crimes also multiplies seven times the pecuniary penalties for print media for insulting Office Secretaries, the Attorney General of the Republic, Governors, the Head of Government of the Mexico City and legislators.
The proposal, presented by the Morenista Bennelly Jocabeth Hernández, was approved without discussion with 19 votes in favor of the majority bloc and one from Movimiento Ciudadano, nine against the Opposition and zero abstentions.
The ruling leaves intact the prison sentences currently considered, but converts the fines into UMAS and raises them, considering that those currently applied do not inhibit the commission of crimes.
According to the bill, attacks on public order or public peace will be punished with a prison sentence of six months to one year and a fine of between five and 40 UMA, that is, between 481 and 3,848 pesos, taking Take into account that, for the month of February, the value of said Unit will be 96.22 pesos.
This figure triples the fine currently established by law, which is between 100 and 1,000 pesos.
In the case of Office Secretaries, Governors, legislators and head of the capital’s Government, the prison sentence will continue to be from three months to one year, while the fine rises from five to 40 UMAS.
This figure is seven times higher than that currently established, which is between 50 and 500 pesos.
In the case of the Magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation and circuit, judges, generals and colonels, the insults will be punished with a prison sentence of between one and six months and with fines ranging from 481 to 3,848. pesos. Currently, the fines for these cases are between 50 and 300 pesos.
“If the insult is verified in a session of Congress or in a court hearing, or is done to the generals or colonels in a military parade or while in charge of their forces, the penalty will be two months of arrest and two years imprisonment and a fine of five to 40 UMAS,” he adds.
For this case, the current fine is established between 200 and two thousand pesos.
The proposal states that for anyone who insults a police officer, one of its agents, the authority or any other public person, the fine will be between 481 and 962 pesos. The current law places it at between 25 and 200 pesos.
Finally, it states that insults to “friendly nations”, to their Presidents or accredited representatives in the Country, will be punished with a prison sentence of one to 11 months and a fine of between 481 and 3,848 pesos. Today these sanctions are between 50 and 500 pesos.
According to the explanatory statement, it is necessary to modify the Law on Printing Crimes, because it is anachronistic and insufficient.
The ruling warns that the fines it establishes range from 25 to two thousand pesos and the prison sentences do not exceed two years, which has prevented them from functioning as an inhibitor in the commission of crimes against public order.
“We reiterate that the fines that are applied are too lax, so they do not allude to discouraging committing illegal acts, so it must be updated, otherwise there will be no coercion to apply sanctions and it is contrary to the sanctions of the Penal Code, for which must also be reformed”, indicates the opinion.
