Illicit conduct is repeated with each new electoral process, without us seeing criminals paying for their crimes behind bars. Impunity in electoral crimes is widespread and recurrent.
Mexico City, November 21 (However).– One of the issues that has not been thoroughly addressed in the consultation process to prepare the proposal for Electoral Reform promoted by the Government of the President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo is that of the electoral crimeswhich should have the purpose of strengthening the autonomy and powers of the specialized prosecutors in the matter, both federal and state, so that they fulfill their purpose to prevent the arrival of illicit money to the parties and the financing of political campaigns.
The great challenge for the prosecutor’s offices, in addition to the crimes that are recurrently committed by alleged public servants and political parties, is the involvement of organized crime in the financing of candidates and political campaigns, especially now that criminal organizations intend to expand territorial control to the spaces of political control. Illicit conduct is repeated with each new electoral process, without us seeing criminals paying for their crimes behind bars. Impunity in electoral crimes is widespread and recurrent.
In the reforms to the laws on electoral matters and their connection with the electoral crimes included in the criminal codes, protocols should be established so that the prosecutor’s offices specialized in the matter can rely on the entire intelligence and investigation system on organized crime and money laundering of the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Ministry of Finance, areas that are under the responsibility of the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection Omar García Harfuch.
On March 5, 2025, the Senate of the Republic gave its consent for the appointment of Facundo Santillán Julián as the new head of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Electoral Crimes (FISEL), at the proposal of the Attorney General of the Republic Alejandro Gertz Manero. From 2019 to 2024, José Agustín Ortiz Pinchetti was in charge of that prosecutor’s office specialized in electoral crimes.
The most common crimes
Article 7 of the General Law on Electoral Crimes states that anyone who “hinders or interferes with the normal development of voting, the counting and counting, or the proper exercise of the tasks of electoral officials; illegally introduces or removes one or more electoral ballots from the ballot box, or introduces false ballots; obtains or requests a signed declaration from the voter regarding their intention or the meaning of their vote” must be punished.
According to the same article, anyone who “threatens to suspend the benefits of social programs, either by not participating in proselytizing events, or by casting the vote in favor of a candidate, political party or coalition; or by abstaining from exercising the right to vote or by committing not to vote in favor of a candidate, political party or coalition, would be committing an electoral crime.”
An electoral crime is committed by anyone who, by any means, carries out any act that causes fear or intimidation in the electorate that violates the freedom of suffrage, or disturbs order or the free access of voters to the polling station. If the conduct is carried out by one or more armed persons or those who use or carry dangerous objects, the indicated penalty will be increased by up to half, regardless of those corresponding to the commission of other crimes.
Fox’s friends
There are emblematic cases that illustrate some of these behaviors. On Friday, January 25, 2013, SinEmbargo published the case of illegal financing of the campaign of the PAN Vicente Fox Quezada, which ended only in a fine to the PAN and its then ally the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico.
In June 2000, a few days before the federal elections were held, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) filed a complaint with the Federal Electoral Institute for the alleged existence of a parallel financing network in favor of the presidential campaign of the National Action Party, headed by Vicente Fox Quesada.
The topic grew and little by little more details appeared. That same year, the then PRI senator Enrique Jackson denounced that through the company Alta Tecnología en Impresos money was received from a Belgian company, and then transferred the resources to the accounts of Lino Korrodi, president of the Friends of Fox association. It was later revealed that this civil association managed to raise 91 million pesos for the blue and white campaign.
Until 2003, the Federal Electoral Institute imposed fines on the PAN for 360 million 971 thousand 39 pesos and on the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico, with whom it joined in the elections, for 184 million 198 thousand 610. The PAN member Vicente Fox governed from 2000 to 2006.
Sanctions against officials
Fines of 200 to 400 days of minimum wage and imprisonment of 2 to 9 years are considered in the law for alleged public servants who unlawfully interfere in the elections.
The assumptions: who coerces or threatens his subordinates to participate in pre-campaign or campaign proselytizing events, to vote or abstain from voting for a candidate, political party or coalition; who makes the provision of a public service, the fulfillment of government programs, the granting of concessions, permits, licenses, authorizations, franchises, exemptions or the performance of public works, within the scope of its jurisdiction, conditional on the issuance of the vote in favor of a pre-candidate, candidate, political party or coalition; to abstain from exercising the right to vote or to commit not to vote in favor of a pre-candidate, candidate, party or coalition.
Public officials who illegally allocate, use or allow the use of funds, goods or services at their disposal, by virtue of their position, to support or harm a pre-candidate, political party, coalition, political group or candidate must also be punished, without prejudice to the penalties that may apply for the crime of embezzlement.
In another criminal figure that involves social programs, Article 11-B of the General Law on Electoral Crimes establishes more severe sanctions…
A fine of 500 to 1,000 days and a prison term of 4 to 9 years will be imposed on the public servant who, during the electoral process, uses or allows the use of public resources, goods, funds, services, or benefits related to social programs with the purpose of influencing the electorate to position or position before the electorate a different public servant, pre-candidate, aspiring independent candidate, candidate, political party or coalition.
In the law there are regulations that aim to inhibit the possibility of resources of illicit origin reaching electoral processes. In this regard, Article 15 of the General Law on Electoral Crimes states that a fine of 1,000 to 5,000 days and a fine of 5 to 15 years in prison will be imposed on anyone who, by himself or through an intermediary, makes, allocates, uses or receives contributions of money or in kind in favor of any pre-candidate, candidate, political party, coalition or political group when there is a legal prohibition for this, or when the funds or assets have an origin. illicit, or in amounts that exceed those permitted by law.
The penalty provided for in the previous paragraph would be increased by up to half more when the conduct is carried out in support of a pre-campaign or electoral campaign.
The Pemexgate
On Thursday, March 18, 2021, a note signed by our colleague Dulce Olvera, warned in SinEmbargo that the Government of Vicente Fox Quesada (2000-2006) had the opportunity to disqualify and/or imprison the then oil leader Carlos Romero Deschamps for his participation in “Pemexgate.” However, the diversion of public resources for the presidential campaign of Francisco Labastida – similar to that of “Amigos de Fox” – was limited to a fine of one billion pesos to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) by the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE).
One more SinEmbargo record, published on Wednesday, April 4, 2018, warned that the brigades supporting José Antonio Meade Kuribreña, PRI presidential candidate, would deliver cards to citizens as part of their “Avanzar Contigo” campaign strategy.
And although Meade assured that they were not bank cards, the delivery of similar documents was used by PRI candidates in previous elections: Alfredo del Mazo Maza delivered in 2017 the “Pink Card” in the election for Governor of the State of Mexico, or “La Efectiva”, which Eruviel Ávila gave in his campaign for Governor in 2011. The plastics were accompanied by certificates of commitment signed by José Antonio Meade, which recalled the method used by Enrique Peña Nieto: “I sign it and I fulfill it,” which elevated him as Mexican governor in 2005 and as President of the Republic in 2012.
Since 2011, political parties and candidates have used cards and electronic wallets to encourage voting in their favor. In that period, in addition to the PRI, the political parties National Action (PAN), the Democratic Revolution (PAN) and the Green Ecologist of Mexico (PVEM) issued 12 different cards that promised extensive benefits to their bearers.
Other criminals
Also committing electoral crimes are priests who, taking advantage of their spiritual and moral influence on parishioners, make propaganda and ask to vote for or against a candidate, party or Government. Article 16 of the General Law on Electoral Crimes is very clear, which establishes that “a fine of one hundred to five hundred days will be imposed on ministers of religious worship who, in the performance of acts of their ministry, or who, in the exercise of religious worship, pressure the direction of the vote or expressly induce the electorate to vote or abstain from voting for a candidate, political party or coalition.”
Although it is not the only case, nor is it an isolated behavior, we all know the repeated attitude of violating the Law of the Cardinal Archbishop Emeritus of Guadalajara, Juan Sandoval Íñiguez, who in the 2021 elections was responsible for the annulment of the elections for the Municipal Presidency of San Pedro Tlaquepaque, Jalisco, where he resides, by requesting a vote against the Government, and repeated the same violation on April 25, 2024, when he published a video against the Government that he warned could lead Mexico to communism.
In the electoral reform, provisions must be established that empower the prosecutor’s offices specialized in the fight against electoral crimes to scrutinize more thoroughly the resources used by political parties and their candidates, which have an obscure or illicit origin, and also increase sanctions to inhibit electoral criminals, in any of their modalities.