Rather than a peaceful transition of power from one party to another, the process came to fisticuffs and even biting between two deputies in the Baja California Sur Congress on Tuesday.

Fighting broke out between Lorena Lineth Montaño, of the Social Encounter Party (PES), and Rosalba Rodríguez López, of the ruling Morena party, over a dispute to install the latter’s newly appointed finance director.

Deputies from the National Action Party (PAN) supported the PES deputies in blocking the Morena lawmakers from installing the appointee in the congress’s finance department.

The argument became heated and Montaño and Rodríguez engaged in a physical confrontation, even going so far as to bite each other hard enough to leave bruises and teeth marks.

The two were broken up by fellow lawmakers and threatened with having charges filed against them.

“We regret the lack of dialogue on the part of the opposing deputies who engaged in these acts,” said Sandra Guadalupe Moreno Vázquez, a deputy from the alliance called Juntos Haremos Historia (Together We’ll Make History).

“We condemn any act of aggression toward our fellow female deputies. We urge them to respect the law and the constitutionality of the state congress,” she said.

Of the same party, Deputy Carlos “Chaky” Van Wormer Ruiz said that “it’s a difference of opinions and we should deal with it in plenary meetings. … We won’t solve anything in the streets.”

Sources: El Informante BCS (sp), Uno TV (sp)