According to Mexico City based newspaper El Universal, during an extraordinary session held behind closed doors in the municipal palace of Playas de Rosarito, Baja California, the local Congress approved the reform with which the term of the governor elect, Jaime Bonilla (Morena), is extended from two to five years.
The president of the Congress of Baja California, Benjamín Gómez Macías (PRI), convened an extraordinary session to discuss the exhortation sent from the Congress of the Union, in the sense of rejecting the reform of Article VIII on the decree to extend the next period of the state governor.
Local legislators were summoned to the headquarters of the municipal government of Playas de Rosarito -a two hour drive from the state capital Mexicali, where the seat of Congress is located -, and it was agreed to dismiss the petition, arguing that it violates the state’s sovereignty.
The representatives were not informed that there would be two sessions. It was at the end of the first when a second immediate extraordinary session was convened to validate the expansion of the governorship period.
It was not necessary to vote, after the support of three of the five Cabildos in the entity was already available and only one more session was missing.
The next step is to wait until the changes to the law are formally published in the Official State Gazette.
Although the governor, Francisco Vega de Lamadrid (PAN), warned on several occasions that he would not publish this reform, it was already consolidated with yesterday’s session. Only a ruling of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation could reverse the decision.
Three PAN representatives left the place, but before leaving they took the floor and expressed their rejection, not only to the validation of the decree reform, but also to the way in which they were summoned.
While the session was taking place, a group of citizens tried to enter the municipal palace. They were denied access, so they protested and hit the infrastructure, accusing the legislators of corruption and calling them “traitors to the country” for having voted in favor of the expansion of the governorship.
As previously mentioned on The Yucatan Times, this actions could be the threshold to a modification in the Mexican Constitution, in order to make AMLO’s reelection possible. After all, both López Obrador and Bonilla belong to the same political party (MORENA), and they go way back, having being close friends for many years…
Baja California governorship could have been “agreed” to extend to 5 years by Bonilla and AMLO at the Petco stadium in San Diego a few months back according to Veraz Informa
The Yucatan Times Newsroom with information from: El Universal
