A Mexican Senate debate over whether Mexico should allow American military intervention to hunt down members of drug cartels devolved into pushing and shoving Wednesday.
Video posted to X showed Alejandro Moreno, a leader of the opposition PRI party, taking on Senate President Gerardo Fernandez Norona, of the ruling Morena party, for not being allowed to speak.
Moreno slapped Norona and shoved another man to the ground as he raved at his adversary.
NEW: Senators in Mexico engage in fistfight after heated debate over U.S. military intervention against drug cartels – CBS pic.twitter.com/0pcYlN5etb
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) August 28, 2025
Mexico’s opposition parties had earlier been attacked for allegedly backing American military intervention, a claim they denied, according to CBS.
Norona said he would file a complaint against Moreno and seek to have the senator’s legislative immunity revoked.
“The debate could be very harsh, very bitter, very strong… today when (opposition legislators) are exposed for their treason, they lose their minds because they were exposed,” he said.
According to a translation of a post on X, Moreno said the ruling party, Morena, made a last-minute change in the Senate agenda “to suit itself to silence us and prevent the opposition from speaking. Their obligation was to give me the floor, but they didn’t. That cowardice led to what came next.”
Moreno said his opponent started the fracas.
“Let’s be clear: the first physical attack came from Norona. He threw the first shove, and he did so out of cowardice. Morena broke the House agreement, and Norona was exposed for his baseness,” he wrote.
He said Mexico’s ruling party does everything it can to silence the opposition.
“What happened isn’t an isolated incident or an accident: it’s part of Morena’s strategy to impose silence and control. This is how its followers, like Fernandez Norona, operate, with shouting, tricks, and violence,” he wrote.
As noted by CBS, President Donald Trump has given the military the green light to use force against drug cartels, although Mexico has said it will not countenance American troops on its soil.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the designation of several drug cartels as terrorist organizations was a significant step.
It’s impossible to beat the cartel when they’re as heavily armed as the CJNG unless you deploy the full might of the US Military to take them out. These guys are all former Mexican special forces with training and equipment. pic.twitter.com/xzWZLpAGOq
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) February 2, 2025
“It allows us to now target what they’re operating and to use other elements of American power, intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, whatever… to target these groups if we have an opportunity to do it,” Rubio said.
“We have to start treating them as armed terrorist organizations, not simply drug dealing organizations,” he said.
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