8 ambitious legislative bills in Latin America

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By 2019, Latin American congresses leave cooking bills that address issues such as abortion, tax reforms, presidential jurisdiction, among others

There are only a few days left until 2018 comes to an end. However, this does not mean that in the Latin American congresses' different bills have not been presented or approved, projects that will become a subject of debate next year. In LatinAmerican Post, we review some.

Leer en español: 8 ambiciosos proyectos de ley en América Latina

Mexico

Abortion

The party of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, presented a legislative bill where it is expected that abortion can be decriminalized throughout the country until 12 weeks of gestation. The project was presented by Lorena Villavicencio, deputy of the National Regional Movement party (Morena), who argued that it is a right of women to interrupt in that period of time.

However, the project, which was supported by the Human Rights Commission, has been strongly criticized by the Church and by Institutions that defend the Family. These institutions argue that due to the high number of deputies belonging to the Morena party, the bill would have favoritism.

Otherwise, the legislator Raúl Chávez Nieto, argued that there is the possibility of consulting citizens and specialists, as reported by the Informative Court. This debate on abortion will take force in 2019

Goodbye to the fuero

On the other hand, at the beginning of December, López Obrador presented a bill that seeks to eliminate the presidential jurisdiction. This means that currently, the Mexican president can only be judged for treason against the fatherland. If approved, any president could be charged for another reason, such as corruption.

To this proposal is added the reduction of salaries and the sale of the presidential plane. With this proposal, Lopez seeks to show that the government and its tendency will be opposed to the presidents who previously governed the Central American country.

You may be interested in reading: The "Marshall Plan" for Central America

Costa Rica

One of the major reforms presented for this country was the approval of the 'Combo Fiscal'. What began as a bill, aims to increase the number of taxes to Costa Ricans to fill the gaps in the fiscal deficit presented by that country. The controversial law was approved despite the fact that thousands of Costa Ricans protested for more than three months.

On the other hand, another bill aims to reform the Criminal Code to condemn computer crimes more effectively, as reported by Prensa Latina. Called the "Anti-Cybercrime Law", it would include certain crimes so that they can be penalized. Adalith Medrano, in conversation with Prensa Latina, argued that this type of law will better understand the crimes of computer crimes and cyber crimes in general.

Guatemala

As reported by Prensa Libre, the deputy Estuardo Galdámez, presented a bill that would penalize those who criticize politicians. In addition to the above, it would also punish people who "criticize others and destroy credibility through social networks" If accepted, this law would harm the country's media and the independent press.

Against this, the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), wrote a statement expressing concern about this bill: "In particular, we are concerned about the restrictions that the bill presents to the journalistic work of scrutiny and criticism of officials and/or candidates for public office under democratic governments, as expressly stated in the Declaration of Principles of Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights," as reported on their official website.

Colombia

Despite the disagreement of thousands of Colombians, the financing law was approved. This law will harm the country's middle class, as it will increase the price of several products that are within the basic family basket. In addition, it will penalize tax evasion, the reduction of the housing subsidy for the middle class, among others.

Read also: Peru: what the 2018 referendum left

Peru

With the referendum that was held on December 9 and where 3 of the four questions asked were approved, Martin Vizcarra has already presented the bill of one of them: the reform to justice. Through a conference, the president affirmed that "this reform must be complemented with the seven bills that are in Congress and that have not yet been approved by the Constitution Commission (…) I am sure that in the month of January they will have an agenda and they will give it priority. "

With this bill, it would be created the National Board of Justice, an organization that aims to register and publish sanctions and relations of judges and prosecutors, something that the previous entity was not responsible for doing.

Bolivia

The Government of Bolivia and representatives of evangelical churches decided to push forward a religious liberty bill. According to Peru21, within this law, there are three key points. The first is to guarantee full freedom of religion and creeds; the second is to work with government authorities, ratifying political independence and the third talks about social projects that ratify the values of life and family. The same means that the law will be approved maximum until February 15, 2019.

Argentina

The bill that calls for the interruption of pregnancies will be presented for the eighth time in March of next year. However, for organizations that are against abortion, the bill will not prosper because the Senate will not have a different caucus; which is necessary for the project to prosper.

Finally, and for soccer lovers, President Mauricio Macri proposed a bill in which he states that any type of violence or carrying weapons, or even stones, could have a sentence of 10 years. In the speech, disseminated by the profile portal, it is stated that the objective of the initiative is "to implement a special criminal regime in the field of football shows called 'Criminal and Procedural Regime for the Prevention and Repression of Crimes in Football Spectacles'".

LatinAmerican Post | Laura Viviana Guevara Muñoz

Translated from "8 ambiciosos proyectos de ley en América Latina"