Alejandro ‘Alito’ Moreno and Gerardo Fernández Noroña grabbed and shouted at each other over the presence of foreign troops

Mexico’s senate devolved into violence this week as two of the country’s top politicians shoved, grabbed and shouted at each other after a heated discussion over the presence of foreign troops.

Alejandro “Alito” Moreno, head of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary party (Pri), grabbed at Gerardo Fernández Noroña, the senate president from the ruling Morena party, after lawmakers finished singing the national anthem to mark the end of the day’s session on Wednesday.

“I’m asking you to let me speak,” Moreno says repeatedly in the livestreamed video.

“Don’t touch me,” Fernández Noroña responds.

When Fernández Noroña tries to pull himself away, Moreno can be seen grabbing at him again, before both lawmakers start grabbing and shoving each other, with Moreno even slapping Fernández Noroña on the neck. When an aide to Fernández Noroña steps between them, Moreno knocks him to the floor.

As Fernández Noroña tries to exit the podium, another lawmaker enters the fray, taking a swing at the senate leader.

“[Moreno] started to provoke me, to touch me, to pull at me,” Fernández Noroña said during a press conference after the incident. “He hit me on the arms and said: ‘I’m going to beat the shit out of you, I’m going to kill you.’”

Moreno wrote on social media: “When Noroña crossed the line, he knew exactly what he was doing. I will always respond head-on, with character and without fear, to defend Mexico and give it the direction it deserves.”

The scuffle followed a tense debate during which the governing Morena party and its allies accused the opposition Pri and Pan parties of calling for US military intervention in Mexico, a claim that both parties denied.

Earlier this week, a senator from the Pan party had gone on Fox News and said that “help from the United States to fight the cartels in Mexico is absolutely welcome”.

The issue has become particularly contentious in Mexico after Donald Trump reportedly authorized the use of military force targeting drug cartels deemed terrorist organizations in Latin American countries.

The senate leader said he would call an emergency session on Friday and propose expelling Moreno and three other Pri lawmakers as a result of the scuffle. Fernández Noroña also posted on X that he had filed a criminal complaint against Moreno.

In a statement on X, Moreno accused the governing party of changing the order of the day at the last minute in order to silence the opposition.

Source: www.theguardian.com