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By KELIN DILLON

Despite the 65th Legislature of Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies having entered office more than 18 months ago, a total of 50 of the congress’ 500-member body have reportedly failed to present more than one single initiative across the past year and a half – all while receiving 2.7 million pesos in pay and other benefits during the very same period.

According to a report crafted by international congressional transparency organization Directorio Legislativo, 30 of the 50 low-output deputies come from the in-power National Regeneration Movement (Morena) of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), seven from the conservative National Action Party (PAN) and seven from Morena’s congressional allies the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico (PVEM), with another two each for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Labor Party (PT) and the Citizens’ Movement (MC) party.

A standout of the Directorio Legislativo congressional report was Morena Deputy Mario Llergo Latournerie, Morena’s representative before the General Council of the National Electoral Institute (INE), who only managed to present one initiative, to reform the General Law of Electoral Institutions and Procedures and the Federal Law of Revocation of Mandate in defense of AMLO’s purported propaganda dissemination, in the Chamber of Deputies back in March 2022.

While a number of the 50 deputies in question – such as Morena’s Brenda Espinoza López, Inés Parra Juárez, Marco Antonio Pérez Garibay and Merary Villegas Sánchez, and the PAN’s María Josefina Gamboa, Sonia Murillo, Jesús Fernando Morales and Diana María Teresa Lara Carreón, among others – offered their support to numerous congressional bills over the past year and a half, none proprietarily penned more than one initiative during the last 18 months.

Though the Chamber of Deputies serves multiple functions, it should be noted that the regulations of the Chamber of Deputies establish that the body’s primary function is to legislate.

Meanwhile, irrespective of their minimal legislative output, these deputies have reportedly earned  75,763.18 pesos in salary per month, a vacation bonus worth 50 percent of a week’s salary, food and travel allowances and a Christmas bonus.

With half of the 65th Legislature of Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies’ three-year term already complete, it remains to be seen if the aforementioned deputies will propose another initiative in the 18 months to come.