Mexican Senate brawl between Moreno and president over intervention

Mexican senators erupted into a physical brawl on Wednesday, Aug. 27, in the upper chamber in Mexico City after a heated debate over alleged calls by opposition lawmakers for U.S. military intervention against drug cartels. Video posted on social media by the Senate shows Institutional Revolutionary Party leader Alejandro Moreno pushing and slapping Senate president Gerardo Fernández Noroña, of the ruling Morena party, as the session closed and lawmakers sang the national anthem.

The confrontation followed a fractious debate in which members of the ruling party accused opposition PRI and PAN legislators of seeking U.S. military involvement. Both opposition parties have denied those charges. As the session concluded, Moreno approached Fernández Noroña and demanded to speak after being denied the floor, then engaged in a physical altercation that briefly involved other legislators and knocked over a photographer, according to the footage and multiple accounts.

Fernández Noroña said later he would file a complaint against Moreno for bodily harm and request that Moreno's legislative immunity be revoked. At a press conference he said Moreno began pulling, touching and pushing him and...