Advantages and disadvantages of AMLO's Amnesty Law in Mexico
A release of political prisoners in Mexico and other minor crimes is approaching. During the electoral campaign, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), assured that he would create a law that would allow political prisoners to go free based on certain conditions.
AMLO and the Amnesty Law for Mexico
Recently, progress has been made on immigration, but security continues to be a problem for AMLO. There are no safe justice mechanisms and the institutions that Mexico has been increasingly far from controlling security problems. Drug trafficking and the murder of people are the problems that most afflict Mexicans.
Now, after the commemoration of the Independence of Mexico, AMLO assured that he would seek to pass an amnesty law, which consists of releasing those people who did not commit serious crimes, especially those who failed to be adequately defended.
Among the people who would benefit from this are those who committed simple theft, abortion, sedition and drug use. AMLO explained that “It has to do with humble people who did not have lawyers, women, the elderly, indigenous people who did not have an adequate defense, who were not assisted or helped; and the crimes for which they are accused are not serious, they are not crimes of blood, of violence.
However, this news has not gone down well in many sectors of Mexico. The strongest critics assure that the amnesty laws are granted in order to reconcile and pacify a special sector of the population and that in this case there is no such process.
In addition, another disadvantage of the amnesty law would be that people are not linked in the process of reintegration into society, which means that when they leave prison they do not have any guarantee of reintegration.
Another disadvantage noted is the search for truth, justice and reparation to the victims, which this law does not seek or wish to establish once the beneficiaries are released.
However, for the government it is an initiative that tries to free Mexicans who were unfairly tried or did not have the possibility to defend themselves adequately. Now it will be the Chamber of Deputies who will study AMLO's initiative. Although it is already beginning to arouse criticism, it is a pending campaign promise which should give it political life.