In the Senate there will be a “neat” ruling: Armenta

Andrea Becerril

Newspaper La Jornada
Sunday September 4, 2022, p. 3

The president of the Senate, Alejandro Armenta, informed that the process to dictate the minute that the Chamber of Deputies will send them, by which it is possible for the National Guard to remain under the operational and administrative control of the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) , it will be neat, strictly adhered to what is established by law and internal regulations.

In what will be his first session at the head of the Senate, next Tuesday, Armenta will have to face the demand of a good part of Morena’s legislators that that chamber quickly approve this initiative by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, since they have the enough votes to do so, and the decision of the opposition bloc, which is already organized to prevent a waiver of procedures.

In an interview, in which he was asked if the minutes will be approved on Tuesday, Armenta replied that the legislative route must be agreed upon by the political forces within the Coordination Board (Jucopo), chaired by Ricardo Monreal, as well as the board of directors that he heads.

–Are you not afraid that the approval of the minutes will be complicated, due to the controversy unleashed in the Morena caucus from the accusations of the opposition to the Monreal coordinator of having negotiated with them to stop that reform?

-I read a communication from Senator Monreal, as I have read from the other coordinators, and he rejected those versions in the sense of being against this initiative.

The president of the Senate insisted that he will continue the procedure established by law about the minutes, to take care of the enormous effort they have made in the Chamber of Deputies.

–But what is going to happen, they turn it over to committees on Monday, to be able to pass it to the plenary session on Tuesday?

-The Senate is a body represented by political forces and politics is the art of dialogue, of conciliation, of the construction of agreements and consensus. It is also the house of debate, I am sure that the senators will do their best to build around this bill that is so important for the country.

Meanwhile, Senator César Cravioto stressed that the Morenistas and their allies must support the bill that incorporates the National Guard into control of Sedena and not enter the game of the PAN and the other groups of the opposition bloc.

It is a discussion, he said, that will take place within the majority group, that cannot fail the President of the Republicbut to approve, as was done in the co-legislator, reforms to three laws, in order to reinforce the instruments for combating insecurity and violence.