MEXICAN SENATE PASSES PROPOSAL TO SCRAP PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY

Mexico's Senate approved a constitutional reform that seeks to eliminate presidential immunity not only on treason charges but also on graft and corruption, electoral cheating and other crimes, teleSUR reported.

Although a procedure was added in the reform to avoid unfounded accusations, opposition figures criticized the legislative initiative, noting that it does not mean the total elimination of the presidential immunity. "Now, with this initiative, with this reform to the Constitution, it will be possible to judge the president for any crime as any citizen. The privilege is over," President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said. To be effective nationally, the reform act must be approved by at least 17 of 32 state legislatures. The Senate voted 89 in favor and 23 against.

The reform was first presented in December 2018 at the Lower Chamber, which approved the terms proposed by the Executive branch in order to modify Articles 108 and 111 of the Constitution.

The Senate also endorsed with 102 votes in favor and 1 against a proposal to judge federal legislators for the same crimes as the federal Executive. The bill will be debated now by the Lower Chamber. "With this profound modification we will make an avant-garde transformation not only with respect to Mexico's history, but also in the international sphere, and we will set an example of a new political structure," Morena Party senator Marti Batres said.