A law with a name and surname
Politics sometimes needs faces to move. And this movement has one: Valeria Macías. A Monterrey teacher who endured nine years of obsessive surveillance by a former student. His case uncovered a huge legal loophole.
Now, that gap could be closed. Since February, Congress has been discussing the so-called Valeria Law, which seeks to classify stalking as a crime at the federal level.
What exactly is stalking?
It’s not just ‘annoy’. It is a systematic campaign. Gabriela Rodríguez Rojas, an academic at the Faculty of Law, defines it like this:
It consists of repeatedly carrying out acts of surveillance, monitoring or unwanted contact that affect mental life or daily development.
Ana Celia Chapa Romero, a psychologist at UNAM, differentiates it from sexual harassment: here the key is obsessive insistence and control. Digital platforms are its fertile field: messages, calls, geolocation in real time.
The damage is concrete and devastating. Chapa Romero explains it bluntly:
“This systematic pattern reduces psychological and physical health. People can develop anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, insomnia…”
The legislative move
In February 2026, the Chamber of Deputies unanimously approved sanctioning stalking. The ball is now in the Senate. If he endorses it without changes, it goes to the Executive’s desk.
And the consequences? They would be historic. Rodríguez Rojas details:
“Article 281 bis would be added to the Federal Penal Code. It would establish sanctions of two to four years in prison and fines of up to 400 days.”
But here is the final trick, the masterstroke that many do not see: this federal law would be only the first act. The academic is clear:
“This is a watershed for local legislation to incorporate. Federal reform alone is insufficient to cover everyday crimes.”
That is to say: they put the issue on the big national billboard to force all states to put on their own show. It’s pure politics: using one big lever to move dozens of small levers.
In the end, it is about recognizing that violence does not need a fist or a scream. Sometimes it’s just a constant, unwanted presence on the other side of the screen. And that, now, could have criminal consequences.
