Senate postpones discussion of anti-money laundering law

Under the pretext that they would provide a final review, the Senate of the Republic removed the ruling on the Anti-Money Laundering Law from Tuesday's agenda, so it is expected to be discussed in the plenary session in the coming days.

"We want to give it a final review; we don't want there to be any; it's a very, very important issue, and there's a need for coordination , even across all the countries. We have to work in the same direction," said the president of the Board of Directors, Gerardo Fernández.

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He said that "some situations were found that warrant review," and because this is a law that combats organized crime and transcends borders, it was decided to conduct another review.

In this regard, Ricardo Anaya, the coordinator of the PAN senators, considered that this ruling has both positive and negative aspects.

On the positive side, he emphasized that it restores the criteria of the FATF (Financial Action Task Force), an international organization dedicated to combating and preventing money laundering. It establishes controls so that a person will not be able to pay more than 300,000 pesos in cash when purchasing a car.

Nor will you be able to pay more than 800,000 pesos in cash when you want to buy land, and when these types of transactions are carried out in cash, the authorities will be informed. "All of this is positive, and we support it," he said.

However, he pointed out that the negative aspect of the ruling is that "they will be able to spy on practically any citizen. Because previously, only politicians were considered politically exposed persons, but this article adds that any person related to a politician—they don't clarify if it's related, what degree, or if it's because they're a neighbor—any related person can be subject to permanent monitoring."

He said such criticism may be "one of the reasons why the matter is being reviewed."