The senator from the National Action Party (PAN), Lilly Téllez, presented an initiative on March 11, proposing to consider public servants who collaborate with drug cartels in Mexico as traitors to the homeland. Téllez questioned the lack of effectiveness of the Mexican state in combating criminal organizations and advocated for accepting cooperation with the United States to combat the cartels.
In her proposal, the legislator seeks to expand the assumptions of the crime of treason to the homeland to include public servants who collaborate with cartels, especially those dedicated to the production, possession, trafficking, distribution, and financing of narcotics. The initiative provides for severe penalties for these officials, including harsher prison sentences, removal from office, and permanent disqualification from public positions, confiscation of illicitly acquired assets, among other measures.
The objective of this proposal is to send a clear message that collaboration with organized crime is incompatible with the principles of legality, honesty, loyalty, impartiality, efficiency, and patriotism that must govern all public servants. According to the document presented by Téllez, not only active collaboration but also illicit enrichment derived from such collaboration will be considered treason to the homeland.
The proposed reform would include non-prescriptive sanctions, meaning they cannot be annulled over time. Additionally, it establishes that individuals prosecuted for these crimes will be transferred to maximum-security penitentiaries and will not be able to access benefits such as early release or reduced sentences, unless mitigating circumstances are proven.
