Mexico City, Mexico — President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has sent a proposal to Congress to eliminate the prohibition for foreigners to participate in Mexican politics.
The proposal was sent to congress in early March requesting a reform to Article 33 of the Constitution to prevent foreigners from being expelled for meddling in local politics. His reform also includes an exception to the explosion only if the meddling risks national security.
AMLO says he considers the current Article an act of censorship since it indicates that “foreigners may not in any way interfere in the political affairs of the country.”
According to the legislative proposal sent to the Chamber of Deputies, it is necessary to update “congruently” the procedure to expel a foreigner from the country.
López Obrador stated that the defense and protection of the human rights of individuals by the Mexican authorities is required to be “the rule, and in which the exceptions that justify its limitation must be perfectly defined, founded and motivated.”
In this sense, the modification proposes to guarantee the right to free expression of ideas of all foreigners, while it states that a foreigner may be expelled, “once the administrative procedure indicated by law has been carried out before the competent authority.”
“The Executive (…) may expel foreigners from the national territory as long as it is proven that their stay in the country constitutes a risk or affectation of national security ,” the initiative reads.
In recent years, there have been several requests made by politicians to use Article 33 against non-Mexicans for being outspoken against some government officials.
