Lawmakers Push Fines for Party-Color Paint Jobs

Legislators at Yucatán’s state congress introduced a pair of notable proposals during a regular session on Wednesday — one aimed at criminalizing the practice of painting public infrastructure in political party colors, the other seeking to require fathers to help cover the costs of pregnancy before a child is born.

The session also produced some unanimous good news: deputies approved constitutional amendments recognizing the right to mental health care, food sovereignty and nutritional security, and non-discrimination. State agencies will have 180 days to bring existing laws into compliance with the new constitutional language.

The Party-Colors Fight

The most charged moment came from deputy Javier Osante Solís of Movimiento Ciudadano [Citizens’ Movement], who proposed adding party-color paint jobs on public buildings to the state penal code as a criminal offense. His target: a long-standing habit by successive administrations of painting parks, sports facilities, and government buildings in their party’s signature color — blue for the conservative PAN [National Action Party], dark crimson for the ruling Morena.

The practice has been a flashpoint in Mérida for months. The federal Secretariat of Infrastructure for Wellbeing, headed by Alaine López Briceño, recently demanded that the city government stop painting municipal works in PAN’s trademark blue. Critics were quick to note the obvious irony: the Morena-led state government has painted its own projects in the party’s guinda, or dark red, across the city and state.

“Every six years I see them paint sports units and parks in the ruling party’s color, at the public’s expense,” Osante Solís said during the session.

His argument rested on a law already on the books. Yucatán’s Institutional Image Law [Ley de Imagen Institucional], passed in April 2020 under then-governor Mauricio Vila Dosal, explicitly prohibits the use of any political party’s colors on government property. The law mandates that public buildings, vehicles, and facilities use white, black, or neutral tones as official institutional colors. Administrative penalties were included in the original legislation, but the Supreme Court of Justice struck down the enforcement mechanism, leaving the ban largely toothless.

Osante Solís pointed out, with visible sarcasm, that current Morena deputy Alejandro Cuevas Mena had voted in favor of the 2020 law as a PRD legislator — and expressed confidence he would support the new initiative as well. The proposal would amend the state penal code to make it a crime, not just an administrative infraction, to paint government spaces in any party’s colors.

A Prenatal Support Proposal

PAN deputy María Teresa Boehm Calero brought forward a separate initiative she called a Prenatal Pension [Pensión Prenatal]. The proposal would amend Yucatán’s Family Code to require fathers to contribute financially to pregnancy-related expenses — medical checkups, lab work, medication, food, and transportation — before the baby is born.

“Today our law is silent,” Boehm Calero said. “It recognizes that a pregnant woman needs support, but it doesn’t say how, when, or who should pay for it. We are seeking to close a legal gap and strengthen protections for motherhood and childhood in Yucatán.”

The initiative drew cross-party support: deputies Larissa Acosta Escalante of Movimiento Ciudadano and Julián Bustillos Medina of Morena both asked to co-sponsor it. Boehm Calero noted the proposal requires no state budget — only, she said, political will.

Some legal observers have noted a potential wrinkle: Yucatán’s existing Family Code already includes prenatal expenses under the legal definition of “alimentos” [support obligations], which theoretically covers pregnancy costs. Critics argue the initiative may be redundant rather than filling a true gap, since judges already have a legal basis to order prenatal support payments. Whether the initiative moves forward will likely depend on whether legislators agree that practical enforcement — not the letter of the law — is the real problem.

Broader debates over prenatal financial responsibility have played out across Mexico for years. In 2022, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation affirmed the constitutionality of criminal penalties for failing to pay pregnancy support, in a case involving Michoacán’s penal code, reinforcing the principle that a father’s financial obligation to a pregnant partner begins at conception.

Deputy Francisco Rosas Villavicencio of the PT [Labor Party] also introduced a proposal to regulate rental housing in Yucatán, citing unchecked rent increases and unjustified evictions affecting low-income families, single mothers, and young renters across the state.

With International Women’s Day approaching on Sunday, several deputies took to the podium to address gender issues. Deputy Larissa Acosta noted that despite Yucatán’s well-known reputation for public safety, 71.4% of women aged 15 and older in the state report experiencing some form of violence. She also recalled what she described as police violence against women who protested outside the Government Palace last year, and said she would not want to witness that again.

Related: For context on how International Women’s Day has played out in Mérida in recent years, see Yucatán Magazine’s coverage of past marches and demonstrations.

Source: Diario de Yucatán. Additional information from La Jornada and Yucatán state legislative records.

Key Facts

• Yucatán’s Institutional Image Law (Decree 204/2020) prohibits party colors on all government property, mandating white, black, or neutral tones
• Deputy Javier Osante Solís (Movimiento Ciudadano) proposes amending the penal code to make party-color paint jobs a criminal offense
• The 2020 law’s administrative penalties were struck down by the Supreme Court, leaving it without teeth
• Deputy María Teresa Boehm Calero (PAN) introduced the Prenatal Pension initiative to require fathers to cover pregnancy costs before birth
• Yucatán’s Family Code already defines prenatal expenses as part of legal support obligations — some observers say enforcement, not the law itself, is the problem
• The proposal would cover medical care, lab studies, medication, food, and prenatal transportation
• Yucatán’s constitution was amended Wednesday to recognize rights to mental health, food sovereignty, and non-discrimination
• State agencies have 180 days to align existing laws with the new constitutional language
• 71.4% of Yucatecan women aged 15 and older report experiencing some form of violence, according to figures cited on the floor