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Puebla Governor Rafael Moreno Valle sent an initiative to the State Legislature that it might on Tuesday repeal the Law to Protect Human Rights and Regulate the Legitimate Use of Force, better known as the “Bullet Act”, which was passed on May 19 by the LIX Legislature in Puebla.

The Legislature's agenda establishes as Point 16: “Official reading of SGD/0120/2014 of Citizen Luis Maldonado Venegas, Secretary General of Government, who by agreement with Citizen Rafael Moreno Valle Rosas, Governor of the State, sends the Initiative of Decree by virtue of which the Act to Protect Human Rights and Regulate the Legitimate Use of Force by Police Agencies of the State of Puebla be abrogated.”

The governor's action follows an escalation of protests in the state after the death of a thirteen-year old boy in a demonstration on the highway, where he was wounded on July 9, presumably by a rubber bullet. After being diagnosed brain dead, the finally died last Saturday.

The “Bullet Act” Last May, Puebla's lawmakers approved the law that permits the police to use firearms and other non-lethal [weapons] in violent protests, emergencies and natural disasters. Article 7 of the law regulating the “legitimate use of public force” states: “The police officer may only make use of the firearm in case of the legitimate defense of himself or third parties in imminent danger of death or serious injury.”

The law was approved with 35 yes votes cast by legislators from the Institutional Revolutionary [PRI] and National Action [PAN] parties; five leftist deputies from the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and Green Democratic Revolution parties abstained. In the event of violent demonstrations, the law established that police will make gradual use of force for the subjugation of people and by the use of “batons, chemical irritants, electrical control devices and stun guns.”

The law was to be applied during violent public demonstrations, acts of vandalism, arrest warrants, or when there might be acts of violence or robbery during a natural disaster, stated the [original] initiative presented by the Governor of Puebla, Rafael Moreno Valle, who is now reversing his position. 

Aristegui Noticias- translated by Jane Brundage Mexico Voice