A violent altercation erupted in Mexico’s senate Wednesday when opposition leader Alejandro “Alito” Moreno grabbed and shoved senate president Gerardo Fernandez Noroña as lawmakers were singing the national anthem at the close of the day’s session.
The fight came after a heated debate on the presence of foreign armed forces in Mexico. Fernandez Noroña, who presided over the session, described the exchanges as “difficult” before tensions finally boiled over, Reuters reported.
Footage from the senate livestream showed Moreno approaching the senate president at the front of the chamber. He repeatedly shouted, “I’m asking you to let me speak,” before grabbing Fernandez Noroña’s arm.
“Don’t touch me,” Fernandez Noroña fired back as the two men pushed each other in front of stunned lawmakers, according to Reuters.
The clash quickly turned chaotic. Moreno knocked over a photographer in the scrum, and another PRI lawmaker entered the fight, throwing punches at Fernandez Noroña as he tried to pull away. Security and colleagues rushed in to separate the men.
Reporters gathered after the incident heard Fernandez Noroña give a sharp account of what happened.
“He started pulling on me, touching me, pushing,” he said of Moreno. “He hit me and said, ‘I’m going to beat the sh*t out of you, I’m going to kill you.’”
The senate president condemned the violence as unacceptable and said he would convene an emergency session Friday. His proposal will be to expel Moreno, who leads the Institutional Revolutionary Party, along with three other PRI lawmakers accused of being involved in the confrontation.
“This institution cannot tolerate threats of violence, much less physical aggression on the floor of the senate,” Fernandez Noroña told reporters.
Moreno, however, flatly rejected that version of events. He claimed Fernandez Noroña struck him first, according to a translation of his post on X, formerly Twitter.
“Ever since the PRI members arrived, they sought to disrupt the session: shouting, provoking, and insulting. But since they couldn’t prevent the debate, because we didn’t fall for the provocations: they began to surround Noroña. Here I show you what happened before the aggression, he said, per the translation.
The Institutional Revolutionary Party, once Mexico’s dominant political force, has seen its influence shrink in recent years but remains a key opposition bloc. Moreno, its current leader, has long been a controversial figure accused by rivals of using combative tactics to maintain control of the party.
Fernandez Noroña, a leftist allied with Mexico’s ruling coalition, has his own reputation as a fiery speaker and confrontational figure in the legislature. Wednesday’s session was expected to be tense, but the eruption of violence shocked even veteran lawmakers.
Videos of the fight quickly spread on social media, sparking outrage and embarrassment. Commentators across Mexico described the scene as symbolic of the country’s deep political divisions, with some calling it one of the most disgraceful episodes in the history of the chamber.
By late Wednesday, senators from multiple parties condemned the behavior and urged leadership to impose discipline. Whether Moreno and his PRI colleagues will actually be expelled could become a major political test for Fernandez Noroña in the days ahead.