Weekly Report - 08 December 2011 (WR-11-49)

MEXICO|  Immunity.  On 1 December the senate approved a constitutional reform which would end executive, judicial and legislative immunity. The vote is another step in the process to end the immunity of all serving presidents, ministers, state governors, judges, electoral officials and members of both houses of congress. Under the constitution, none of them can be investigated and prosecuted while serving their terms in office. (Humberto Moreira, the controversial governor of Coahuila, exploited this privilege by petitioning the state assembly for a licence to hold another post, rather than formally resigning as governor). Some politicians are embarrassed by such privileges: Senator Pedro Joaquín Coldwell, a former Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) governor of the state of Quintana Roo, said that “the immunity that hurts Mexicans most is the immunity from prosecution [enjoyed by] politicians”.

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