Mexican Senators Propose Canceling Party Registrations Over Organized Crime Ties

Mexico City — Two senators from the National Action Party (PAN) have introduced a bill to cancel the registration of political parties found to have ties to organized crime. Marko Cortés and Raymundo Bolaños announced the initiative, which also calls for nullifying elections where criminal groups influence campaigns or candidate selection.

The senators argue that consequences must be strict and proportional to the institutional damage caused by such links. “This should include canceling the registration of the political party that has engaged in these practices, as well as nullifying the election when organized crime’s intervention to influence the contest or candidate selection is demonstrated,” they stated.

Cortés warned that the electoral system cannot sustain itself on procedural simulations, the artificial creation of intra-party positions to justify early campaign starts, or mechanisms that allow building majorities not granted by citizen votes. He added that authorities can no longer ignore “the elephant in the room”—the infiltration of organized crime into political competition and access to public office.

Bolaños emphasized that citizen openness, eliminating spurious majorities, and regulating the non-participation of organized crime are non-negotiable issues in any electoral reform. He assured that the initiative is “real, functional, and viable” and not made for the benefit of one party, but for Mexico as a whole.

The proposal aims to eliminate the 8% overrepresentation and underrepresentation threshold to prevent the formation of an officialist bloc with a fictitious majority. It also suggests allowing candidates who narrowly lost in their districts but received significant voter support to enter Congress through proportional representation, creating a closer link between citizen votes and legislative integration.

Other measures include incorporating the concept of “political force” into the constitutional framework to eliminate simulations that distort voting and the correspondence between citizen will and legislative representation, ensuring no political offer benefits from proportional representation beyond its effective vote count. The bill also proposes primary elections for president, senators, and federal deputies, organized by the National Electoral Institute (INE).