MEXICO

On February 26, the Open Parliament on Cybersecurity ended, which was held by the Constitutional Points Committee of the Chamber of Deputies. Specialists and representatives of the private sector participated in the debate on the bill that reforms Article 73, paragraph XXIX-M of the Mexican Constitution, in order to allow Congress to issue laws on cybersecurity and protection of human rights in cyberspace. It is expected that in the next few days the Committee will continue the debate on the initiative in order to approve the bill.

Among the contributions of the parliament, the following stand out:

• Pablo Bello, WhatsApp Public Policy Director for Latin America (Facebook), assured that it is essential that the government, public security institutions, companies and the media, among others, jointly build a “strong cybersecurity ecosystem” so that users of digital technologies do not lose confidence in the Internet, and therefore stop using Internet services.

• The president of the Constitutional Points Committee, Deputy Aleida Alavez Ruiz (Morena – ruling party), explains that the debate of the bill is not intended to violate the right to freedom of expression, but rather “to [guarantee] legal certainty for the security of all who use digital media,” in order to do so it is necessary to create a dynamic regulatory framework.

• Leobardo Morelos Chávez, vice-president of the Security Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico, informed that he supports the requirement for a national cybersecurity strategy to protect the economic environment and that both the public and private sectors should be included in its preparation. He also suggested the creation of a government entity in order to coordinate an action plan on the subject and the “design of a specific law with a catalog of crimes and the need to harmonize the legal framework in this regard.”

• The secretary of the Science, Technology and Innovation Committee, María Eugenia Hernández Pérez (Morena – ruling party), determined that in order to reduce illicit acts in cyberspace, it is critical to improve national public policies and legislative framework. She pointed out that “a legal model for cyberspace is not an option, but a necessity due to the fact that, in recent years, attacks on the infrastructure of public, state and federal government institutions have increased drastically.”