Mexico’s Senate erupted right into a brawl on Wednesday with senators throwing punches, pushing and shouting following a heated debate over alleged calls for the US military to intervene against drug cartels.
Alejandro “Alito” Moreno, head of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), confronted Senate president Gerardo Fernandez Noroña of the ruling Morena party, as lawmakers were singing the national anthem to mark the top of the day’s hearing.
The tussle broke out after a debate in regards to the presence of armed forces from other countries in Mexico, Fernandez Noroña said in a press conference after the fight.
In a livestreamed video, Moreno may very well be seen approaching Fernandez Noroña, reportedly saying, “I’m asking you to let me speak,” and grabbing Fernandez Noroña by the arm.
“Don’t touch me,” Fernandez Noroña reportedly responded.
That’s when the 2 began pushing one another, with Moreno knocking over a photographer in the course of the fight.
One other lawmaker entered the scuffle, swinging at Fernandez Noroña as he tried to step away.
“(Moreno) began pulling on me, touching me, pushing. He hit me and said, ‘I’m going to beat the s— out of you, I’m going to kill you,’” Fernandez Noroña alleged.
Sen. Alejandro Moreno (L) of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) throws a punch at Sen. Gerardo Fernandez Norona of the National Regeneration Movement Party (Morena) during a session of the Everlasting Commission of the Senate in Mexico City on Aug. 27, 2025.
STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images
But Moreno claims that Fernandez Noroña had swung at him first.
In an announcement posted on X, Moreno said that “everyone saw what happened” within the Senate chamber and “it’s essential to elucidate it clearly.”
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“Let or not it’s clear: the primary physical aggression got here from Noroña. He threw the primary shove, and he did it out of cowardice,” he wrote.
Fernandez Noroña said he would call an emergency session for Friday and can propose expelling Moreno and three other lawmakers for the incident. He also said he planned to file a criticism against Moreno for bodily harm.
“The talk may very well be very harsh, very bitter, very strong … today when (opposition legislators) are exposed for his or her treason, they lose their minds because they were exposed,” he added.
On Thursday, Moreno used the footage as a part of a campaign video on X.
“Due to the nice CEN family for his or her support! With their strength and with their voice, PRIism will proceed standing within the fight. In every street, in every municipality, and in every corner of Mexico, we’re going to face this narcodictatorship that wishes to subdue the people,” he wrote.
“Mexico deserves freedom, justice, and a government that serves, not one which destroys. And have little question: We’re going to attain it,” Moreno added.
Earlier this month, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that members of the U.S. military wouldn’t be entering Mexican territory after a news report that Washington may take such motion to combat drug cartels.
The Latest York Times reported that Trump had signed a directive to the Pentagon to start using military force against certain Latin American cartels.
Sheinbaum said her government had been informed of a coming order but that it had nothing to do with U.S. military operating on Mexican soil.
In February, Sheinbaum said that Mexico won’t tolerate an “invasion” of its national sovereignty after the Trump administration moved to formally designate eight Latin American crime organizations as “foreign terrorist organizations.”
“This can’t be a chance for the U.S. to invade our sovereignty,” Sheinbaum said during her day by day press briefing. “With Mexico, it’s collaboration and coordination, never subordination or interventionism, and even less invasion.”
“We would like to be clear, given this designation, that we don’t negotiate our sovereignty,” Sheinbaum added. “There will be no interference or subordination. Each countries want to cut back the consumption of medicine and the trafficking of illegal drugs.”
Sheinbaum said her government was not consulted by the US in its decision to include Mexican cartels on a listing of world terrorist organizations, including the Sinaloa cartel, United cartel, the Michoacana family and the Jalisco Latest Generation cartel.
Canada has also listed seven transnational criminal organizations — including multiple drug cartels — as terrorist entities under the Criminal Code.
— With files from Reuters
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