Mexico City, April 13.- With a divided vote of 54 in favor, 49 against, and ten abstentions, the Senate approved in general the minute with the reforms to the Federal Telecommunications and Broadcasting Law, which creates the National Registry of Mobile Telephone Users, which requires 122 million cell phone users to register their biometric data, that is, fingerprints and facial expressions, as well as the iris of their eyes.
Failure to register or doing so late will result in permanent cancellation of your phone line and a fine of 89,692 pesos.
The entire opposition voted against the bill, arguing that it violates users' constitutional rights by exposing sensitive data and establishing a registry similar to the one that failed under Felipe Calderón's regime. On the Morena side, Senator Jesusa Rodríguez voted against it, and 10 Morena and PT legislators, including Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, abstained.
Morena Senator Lucía Meza, president of the Communications and Transportation Committee, commented when presenting the ruling that the goal is to reduce extortion and kidnapping offenses, which generate an estimated 12 billion pesos in profits for organized crime.
“According to INEGI (National Institute of Statistics and Geography), one in five crimes committed in 2019 was extortion. In 2019, 4.6 million extortions were committed, which represents nine extortions per minute. (…) This generates more than 12 billion pesos a year for organized crime, mainly extortion and kidnapping.”
However, PAN, PRI, PRD, and MC senators warned that they will go to the Supreme Court as soon as the controversial law is enacted. Claudia Ruiz Massieu of the PRI (National Action Party) stated that establishing this registry violates the presumption of innocence and puts the safety of cell phone users at risk, because "it presumes the owner of the registered line guilty of any crime. If the phone number is used to commit a crime, the user is left completely defenseless."
