With 15 deputies present and behind closed doors, the Congress of Baja California formally validated the reform that expands government in the state from two to five years.
In the session convened in an extraordinary manner and at an alternate venue, located in Playas de Rosarito, in the face of protests at the headquarters in Mexicali, the request issued by the Standing Political Commission of the Union Congress to leave the reform passed on 8 July.
With the modification, the governor-elect of the state, Jaime Bonilla, will take office on November 1, and conclude on October 31, 2024. While the next administration will end in 2030.
In front of the municipal palace of Playas de Rosarito, citizens demonstrated against the legislators with cries of “sold” and “traitors”. Hours earlier, they also symbolically closed the headquarters in the capital of Baja California, in protest at the extension of the period to the governorship.
Some legislators considered theright victims of possible acts of crime to support the reform.
Deputy Monica Hernandez Alvarez, who later resigned from the PAN and who is in the process of being expelled from the party, said in a vulnerable situation because it spread that she received money for voting for the so-called “Bonilla Law”.
He said that despite having voted in favour of the reform of extension of mandate, he rejected the way in which the call for the extraordinary session was conducted.
“Nothing I did has been illegal, I’ve done everything for the people,” he said in his speech.
Alfa Peñaloza, also in the process of expelling the PAN, said some citizens have thrown water and coins at him in protest. “They’ve made calls to my business, my family has been threatened,” she said.
On 23 July, six of the seven NAP deputies who voted to extend the mandate of Jaime Bonilla’s governorship renounced his party. These include Mónica Hernández Alvarez, Carlos Alberto Torres Torres, María Trinidad Vaca Chacón, Raúl Castañeda Pomposo, Ignacio García Dworak and José Félix Arango Pérez.
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