‘It’s not on our agenda’: Morena MPs oppose increased fines for insulting president

The National Regeneration Movement party (Morena) was brought back to the center of criticism due to the presentation of the opinion to add changes to the Printing Offenses Act.

He proposes triple the fines for insulting the president adjust weight quantities to measure and update units (A), since it establishes that for having committed the said offence, the fine could be thousand 37 pesos up to 4 thousand 139 (currently UMA is adjusted to 103.73 pesos).

This caused quite a stir in the political arena, with members of the opposition pointing out that the proposal This is nonsense and an attack on freedom of expression.. After the scandal, President André Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) assured that he would veto the proposal and even ignored it.

This announcement, made during the President’s morning conference, led the representatives of the Cherry Bench lawmakers to align themselves with the President’s refusal, because throughout the day, both in the Senate and in the Chamber of Deputies , announced their rejection of the changes.

Such was the case with Ignacio Mier VelazcoChairman of the Policy Coordination Council (Jucopo) in the Chamber of Deputies, who claimed that the initiative would not go to the plenary as long as Velazco held this position.

He also denied that the proposal made by lawmaker Morenista for Zacatecas, Bennelly Jocabeth Hernandez Ruedasbe part of the party’s legislative program.

“The update on fines for insults approved by the governance committee WILL NOT go to plenary as long as JUCOPO chairs and our coalition has a majority. The initiative is not part of our legislative program. Neither a political nor strategic error, just a legislative process”.

Similarly, Senator Ricardo Monreal Avilawho at a press conference He took a stand against the reform proposal considering that it is not in line with Morena’s ideology or the self-proclaimed government of the Fourth Transformation (4T).

Well, he assured that respect for values ​​such as tolerance and freedom of expression are attributes that must not be violated, since public figures are “subject to public scrutiny”.

“Personally, I will wait for the moment of the legislative procedure to express our political position in plenary (on the initiative) and in the advisory committees, but that shouldn’t happenhe told the media.

The initiative aims to modify the articles 10, 13, 15, 20, 32 there 33 of the aforementioned law.

In the first, article 10, the amount of the fines is fixed; 13 deals with the punishment of those who do not notify the opening of a printing press or advertising medium; 15 refers to fines for owners of printing and graphics shops that distribute printed matter without identification of the printer and his data, and 20 refers to fines for owners of periodicals that do not include the name and Director’s first name.

While Articles 32 and 33 are those relating to fines imposed on persons who have committed moral offenses and the you insult the presidentrespectively.

“I was surprised yesterday that they allow in the House that anyone who insults the president will increase the sentence, they will have to pay two, three times more. I do not know who did that. I don’t need it, I didn’t promote it. I will vetothe president said on the morning of February 15.

But it establishes not only that the president will be fined for insults, but also magistrates of the courts, members of the federal or state legislature, generals or colonels, among other public officials “in the exercise of their functions or with good reason for them”.