Mexico City, Mexico — With the aim of strengthening the defense of national sovereignty, President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo announced an initiative to reform Articles 40 and 19.
The reform of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States is to expressly prohibit any attempt at foreign intervention. The initiative was sent to the Congress of the Union Thursday.
The constitutional initiative is to reform Article 40 to establish that Mexico will not accept any type of foreign intervention. Article 19 will also be amended to establish the most severe possible penalty for anyone involved in the illegal production or distribution of weapons.
Sheinbaum says the reforms are to strengthen the defense of national sovereignty. On Thursday during her announcement she said that with the U.S. there is coordination, not interference.
“With Mexico, it is collaboration and cooperation, never subordination, not interference and even less invasion,” she said.“What does this mean? We collaborate, we coordinate, we work together, but there is no interference, there is no violation of sovereignty.
“That is what we want to make clear in this definition that the United States government and the United States Senate have decided on for the designation of organized crime groups as terrorist groups, the six organized crime groups that they named,” she explained.
She announced that the Government of Mexico, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), will expand the lawsuit against arms producers and distributors in the United States for complicity.
She explained that the initiative contemplates adding two paragraphs to Article 40 to make it clear that Mexico will not accept any foreign intervention:
First paragraph: “The people of Mexico will not, under any circumstances, accept interventions, interferences or any other act from abroad that is harmful to the integrity, independence and sovereignty of the Nation, such as coups d’état, interference in elections or the violation of Mexican territory, whether by land, water, sea or airspace.”
Second paragraph: “Nor will it consent to intervention in any investigation or prosecution without the express authorization and collaboration of the Mexican State within the framework of applicable laws.”
While Article 19 would be amended to establish that “any national or foreigner involved in the illegal manufacture, distribution, sale, transfer or importation into the national territory of weapons, and any foreigner who carries out activities outside the law related to the second and third paragraphs of Article 40 of this Constitution, will be imposed the most severe penalty possible, as well as the precautionary measure of pretrial detention.”
She stressed that the goal is to ensure that the United States’ decision to designate organized crime groups as terrorist groups is not seen as an opportunity to invade Mexican sovereignty.
“What we want to make clear in regard to this designation is that: we do not negotiate sovereignty, as I said yesterday. This cannot be an opportunity for the United States to invade our sovereignty. So, they can name it whatever they want, but with Mexico it is collaboration and coordination, never subordination, not interference and much less invasion,” he said.
Regarding the lawsuit filed by the Mexican government against arms producers and distributors, she said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) is working on expanding the lawsuit after the National Assessment of Firearms Trade and Trafficking (NFCTA) of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) of the United States Department of Justice recognized that 74 percent of the weapons used by organized crime in Mexico come illegally from the U.S. military industry.
“There will also be an extension of this demand for complicity by those who sell weapons that are brought into our country,” he added.
He reiterated that Mexico is a free, independent, sovereign country that will always coordinate within the framework of its Political Constitution and laws.
He recalled that both countries want to reduce drug consumption and trafficking, as well as the rates of violence, and therefore emphasized the importance of continuing to work in coordination and collaboration.
“President Andrés Manuel López Obrador made changes to the National Security Law, as we saw yesterday, to make it very clear: There is collaboration, there is coordination, but there is no interference, nor subordination,” she added.
At the end of the Thursday morning press conference, Sheinbaum signed the reform initiative in the company of the legal advisor to the Federal Executive, Ernestina Godoy Ramos, and the Undersecretary of Basic Education, Angélica Noemí Juárez Pérez.
