300,000 Mexicans take the law into their own hands (in a good way)

Mexican citizens are not waiting any longer for their politicians to draft new laws against corruption. They have taken on the job themselves.

Mexicans have the right to propose changes to the Constitution or laws if the proposal is backed with at least 120,000 signatures. If that is the case, the Congress has to discuss the bill and vote on it.

A diverse group of organisations, including Transparencia Mexicana, got together to come up with a proposal that could strengthen the fight against corruption in the country.

The campaign has now collected 309,476 signatures in 40 cities across Mexico and abroad, and will be delivering the final count to the Senate where the new anti-corruption legislation will be debated.

Citizens’ Initiative: #Ley3de3 (Law 3 out of 3) is proposing public servants disclose their assets, interests and tax-payments. It proposes stronger sanctions for those public servants and enterprises or individuals involved in corruption and mandates government to create anonymous and safe channels to denounce corruption, among other actions.

A summary of the proposed law can be found here (in Spanish)

The new law will help citizens ensure politicians are not enriching themselves illegally or involved in conflict of interests.

New definitions of corruption in Mexico

The law also identifies ten types of corruption and the punishments that should be given if people break the law. In the past, the lack of a legal definition for different types of corruption often allowed people to avoid prosecution.

Think of them as the 10 corruption plagues of Mexican society:

Bribery,
misappropriation of public funds,
abuse of power,
embezzlement,
collusion, conspiring to commit corrupt acts,
trafficking of influences,
obstruction of justice,
misuse of privileged information, and
nepotism.

What happens next:

• The National Electoral Commission will validate the signatures
• The proposal will be submitted to Congress
• The civic coalition will monitor the legislative discussion on this initiative and keep up the pressure for real reform in Congress
• UPDATE: The final signature count has been updated with a total of 309,476 signatures collected and counted