Eirinet Gomez
Correspondent
La Jornada newspaper
Thursday, December 23, 2021, p. 7
Xalapa, Ver., Eight months after the Veracruz Congress approved the reform of the state’s Penal Code to increase penalties for the crime of abuse of authority, the amendment set off the alarms of human rights defenders and ended up confronting to the political class in power.
In March, at the initiative of the Morenista governor Cuitláhuac García, the legislature made adjustments to the content of articles 331 and 371 Quinquies of the crime of outrages to authority and crimes against public security institutions; It increased its penalty and left the configuration of the offense to the discretion of the superiority. The reform was made in the matter of extortion, robbery, dispossession and outrages to the authority, against the institutions of public security and against the security of the community.
Regarding the outrages to the authority, it was stipulated that six months to two years in prison and a fine of 10 to 40 units of measurement and updating will be imposed for anyone who threatens or assaults a public servant when exercising their functions or because of them .
According to the adjustments, the person responsible for this crime would be applied, in addition to the previous sanctions, from five to seven years in prison, when it is committed by one or more people armed or carrying dangerous instruments.
After its approval, some 20 organizations, academics and activists demanded that the crime be repealed from the Penal Code, for contravening national and international standards, negatively impacting the exercise of various human rights and promoting the criminalization of social protest, dissent and the exercise of freedom of expression
.
Hours after its promulgation, the first prisoner for this crime fell. The PRD Rogelio Franco, at that time a multi-member candidate for federal deputy, was accused of the crime of abuse of authority, when he resisted being detained by ministerial police despite having an amparo.
Since he could not prosecute him for a complaint of gender violence, the state prosecutor’s office accused Franco of abuse of authority, for which he lost his seat in the Chamber and to this day he remains in prison.
A month later, Nicolás Ruiz, the pre-candidate for mayor of Minatitlán, was arrested by the PAN, PRI and PRD coalition, followed by other opposition standard-bearers.
The case that ended up facing the elites of Morena was the arrest of six young people in a commercial plaza in this capital. Senator Ricardo Monreal learned of the fact and for a couple of months he fought for his release and the repeal of the crime.
Monreal exchanged statements with Cuitláhuac García, who insists that the reform to the Penal Code was made to protect the forces of order and imprison criminals who broke the law. But the senator insisted that in Veracruz investigation folders were integrated for outrages to the authority, that is, from alleged attacks on the police, and citizens are imprisoned.
The legislator delivered a document to the president of Congress, Cecilia Guevara, in which he points out that the reform of the Penal Code violates human rights and asked that the process to repeal the crime be initiated.
