Mexico City [Mexico], August 30: A session of the Mexican Senate turned chaotic when a dispute over speaking time escalated into a physical altercation between senior lawmakers, CNN reported.
The fight broke out near the end of the meeting, which had included an intense debate on potential US military intervention in Mexico.
As the national anthem played, Alejandro Moreno, president of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), stormed toward the podium and grabbed the arm of Senate President Gerardo Fernandez Norona of the ruling Morena party. The two quickly got involved in a shoving match, CNN reported.
Footage of the scuffle, as reported by CNN, showed another suited man throwing a punch at Norona, while Moreno pushed a man in a green shirt to the ground. Norona later identified the man in green as a member of his staff, who later appeared at a press conference wearing a neck brace and arm bandages.
Moreno defended his actions in a post on social media, alleging that the ruling party had altered the session's agenda to silence the opposition. "That cowardice provoked what followed. Let it be clear: the first physical aggression came from Norona," he wrote, accusing the Senate president of initiating the confrontation.
Norona rejected Moreno's version of events, insisting that opposition senators had attacked him. "They ganged up on me. They will say this is freedom of expression," he remarked. He added that he planned to file a formal complaint against Moreno, whom he accused of threatening to kill him, and said he would seek the expulsion of Moreno and other opposition figures involved.
The session included debate over whether US military forces could intervene in Mexico, a proposal that Norona claimed the opposition had endorsed.
While violence in Mexico's legislature is uncommon, it has happened before. In 2006, lawmakers clashed in a full-scale brawl just before the inauguration of then-President Felipe Calderon following a contested election, according to CNN.
Source: Times of Oman
