A Comprehensive Analysis of the Constitutional Reform Against Extortion
The plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies has taken a decisive step in Mexico’s criminal policy by unanimously approving, with 474 votes in favor, a reform to article 73 of the Political Constitution. This fundamental modification grants the Congress of the Union the explicit power to issue a general law against extortion, an initiative that has been sent to the Senate of the Republic for review and eventual ratification. This legislative process represents a structural response to a national security problem that has shown exponential growth in recent years.
The constitutional mandate establishes that, once the reform is enacted, both chambers of Congress will have a maximum period of 180 calendar days, counted from the day following its entry into force, to prepare, discuss and promulgate secondary legislation. This peremptory time frame underlines the urgency attributed by legislators to the creation of a unified legal instrument.
Legislative Positions and Arguments
During the debate on the platform, Deputy Laura Hernández García emphasized the imperative need for the process of drafting the general law to be inclusive and technical. He stressed the importance of consulting victims, academics and human rights organizations to build a robust legal framework. “This secondary legislation must homologize penalties and generate a policy against crime in a unified manner,” he stated, highlighting that the regulations must address the seriousness of the crime of extortion, its original causes and provide effective legal tools that respect fundamental rights.
For his part, deputy Héctor Saúl Téllez provided crucial quantitative support to the debate. He stated that between 2019 and 2024, the annual average number of investigation files for extortion rose to 9,407, marking an unprecedented increase and well above the records of previous six-year periods, with a growth rate that shot up to 46.1%. To contextualize the seriousness of the situation, he provided a historical comparison: in the first ten months of the current administration, 9,021 cases were registered, a figure that far exceeds the 7,249 at the beginning of López Obrador’s government, the 6,792 of Peña Nieto and the 2,599 of Felipe Calderón.
The legislator Alejandro Domínguez introduced a critical element for the effectiveness of any public policy: budget viability. He stated that the new law must include specific and labeled budget resources, arguing that “without money, without personnel and without training, any law is reduced to a dead letter.” Likewise, he stressed the need for a uniform legal framework to eliminate disparities between federal entities, where minimum sentences vary from 1 to 30 years in prison, creating asymmetries in the administration of justice.
The Black Figure and the Real Dimension of the Problem
One of the most revealing testimonies was that of deputy Lilia Aguilar, who put the phenomenon of the black figure on the table. He pointed out that approximately 96% of extortion crimes are not reported, which implies that official statistics only capture a minimal fraction of reality. “The 57 extortions per day that we know of represent just 4% of those that happen in our country,” he explained. This massive concealment of the crime covers a wide spectrum, from the collection of the floor – which has been instituted as a kind of illegal tax – to telephone scams that simulate lottery prizes.
The Deputy Annia Gómez corroborated the alarming upward trend, calling extortion a “high-impact crime” that grew by 57% between 2018 and 2025, equivalent to almost 30 reported daily cases. He cited compelling data: in 2023, 4.9 million extortion crimes were committed, which translates into 5,213 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Geographically, 71% of these crimes are concentrated in Veracruz, the State of Mexico and Nuevo León, evidencing specific red spots that demand priority attention.
This legislative analysis reveals a multi-party consensus on the critical nature of extortion as a threat to the economic and personal security of citizens. The constitutional reform lays the foundations for a coherent national strategy, which seeks to overcome the fragmented mosaic of state legislation through the homogenization of criminal types, sanctions and investigation protocols. The success of this initiative will depend not only on the speed of the Senate, but also on the subsequent allocation of sufficient financial and human resources to transform the legal mandate into a tangible operational capacity for security and justice institutions.
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