PAN and PRI separately introduced bills in the Chamber of Deputies during the first days of the legislative session that began September 1, targeting public officials who collude with organized crime. The legislative convergence puts sentences of up to 140 years in prison on the table for so-called narco-politicians.

The PAN proposal, reported by Infobae México, calls for prison terms of 80 to 140 years and fines of up to 24,000 days. The PRI proposal, reported by El Universal, would add 40 years in prison and six years of salary in fines for officials whose ties to organized crime are proven. Both bills come after months of announcements: PAN chairman Jorge Romero Herrera floated the idea of a de facto life sentence in June, and floor leader Elías Lixa revived it on August 26. In presenting his bill, Lixa foregrounded U.S. authorities' allegations against Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya, who has denied the accusations. Dismantling those networks is part of the bilateral cooperation agenda; the Mexican community on both sides of the border is closely following the issue.

The PRI bill, championed by Representative Christian Mishel Castro Bello, adds subsections XVI and XVII to Article 123 of the Federal Penal Code, classifying as treason any instance in which a public official commits organized crime offenses linked to health, hydrocarbon smuggling, kidnapping, or extortion, or uses illicit resources for political activity; it also covers private individuals who benefit from those operations. The PAN bill, introduced by Representative José Manuel Hinojosa Pérez, seeks to make those offenses non-prescriptible and amends the Federal Law against Organized Crime. "No narco-governor should walk free," Lixa summarized.

The PRI initiative was referred to the Justice Committee; the PAN initiative is beginning its legislative debate. If the full chamber backs either bill, the Federal Penal Code will add specific rules against officials who collude with organized crime in the current legislature.

This article was written with artificial intelligence assistance based on verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.