Natalia Vitela and Guadalupe Irízar/ Reform Agency
Tuesday, February 21, 2023 | 10:12
CDMX.- President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reiterated that the opinion approved by Morena deputies that proposes raising fines for insults against him must be eliminated, since he considered that this regulation is not of great importance.
“It’s like when an initiative is presented to increase the amount of the fine for those who insult the President, that’s not it, what’s more, we’re going to remove that, for insults to the President, that doesn’t matter,” he said after criticizing decisions of Cofece and judges who do not favor their government.
López Obrador assured in his morning conference from the National Palace that they will be able to judge him based on his political authority, depending on the performance of his Administration.
“Because the moral authority, the political authority, is earned fundamentally with a correct proceeding and with what I consider most important in my life, honesty,” he said.
The President argued that these kinds of laws prevail in authoritarian governments, as happened in the time of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz.
He recalled that this accusation was imputed to José Revueltas, during his time as an activist that led to his imprisonment as a political prisoner.
“José Revueltas was arrested the first time, when he arrived in the Marías Islands, for insulting the President, so all that must be removed. The legislators are already listening to us, hopefully it will be achieved,” he reiterated.
He added that those who insult him will be opponents who are upset with his efforts, but who before, he lashed out, were favored by Presidents.
“Of course they are going to insult me, well imagine what they were used to stealing, looting, that they lived full of attention, of privileges, that the owners of Mexico felt, because they are very upset with the transformation that is taking place “, he pointed out.
However, the President pointed out that if he is attacked, that does not justify fines for those who are against him.
“But from that, to having (Héctor) Aguilar Camín fined, who publicly insulted me, a great organic intellectual, a friend of (Carlos) Salinas and (Ernesto) Zedillo and everyone, who made juicy profits from the work of supporting the corrupt regime.”
The opinion was approved in the Chamber of Deputies a week ago at the proposal of the Zacatecan legislator from Morena, Benelli Jocaneth Hernández Ruedas, close to Senator Ricardo Monreal, who already rejected its approval, as did Ignacio Mier, coordinator of the Morenista bench in Saint Lazarus.
Since then and for the third time this morning, the President has rejected a law that punishes insults against him and urged legislators not to support it.
The provision was endorsed in the Governance Commission, with the votes of 19 deputies from Morena, PVEM and PT, plus one from the MC deputy, María Elena Limón, while the Va por México coalition did so against it.
According to what was stated in the approved initiative:
-Punishments for “insults” to the federal president, cabinet secretaries, ministers, governors, legislators and the head of the Attorney General’s Office would be raised.
-The fines should be increased because the current ones “do not inhibit the commission of crimes.”
-They would become a Measurement and Update Unit (UMAS).
-The Law on Printing Crimes applies penalties and fines that mostly do not exceed 2 years in prison and fines of 25 to 200 pesos.
