Hair pulling. An elbow to the stomach. A slap to the head. A scrum of contorted bodies.

It wasn’t a schoolyard scrap, but rather a fight involving lawmakers in the Mexico City Congress.

The chaotic melee played out on Monday during a debate over the disbandment of the Mexico City Transparency Institute (InfoCDMX) and the body slated to replace it.

Unhappy with a Morena party proposal related to the body that will replace InfoCDMX, a group of National Action Party (PAN) lawmakers invaded the dais of the Mexico City Congress.

A physical and verbal clash between PAN and Morena lawmakers ensued.

PAN Deputy Daniela Álvarez and Morena Deputy Yuriri Ayala were at the center of the confrontation, grabbing each other’s arms and trading a few relatively minor blows before they were involved in a messy moment of hair-pulling involving at least four female lawmakers.

Sí, es el Congreso de CDMX en el siglo XXI.

Así la pelea durante la discusion del dictamen que desaparece el Instituto de Transparencia de la capital. pic.twitter.com/ESz8hSPWh0

— Joaquín López-Dóriga (@lopezdoriga) December 15, 2025

Green Party Deputy and Congress President Jesús Sesma, the only man on the dais, attempted to disentangle his female colleagues, but wasn’t immediately successful.

The unbecoming episode was caught on camera and, unsurprisingly, went viral on social media.

PAN Deputy Claudia Pérez sustained an injury during the fracas and was subsequently filmed having a cervical collar placed around her neck. She and other lawmakers involved in the clash could face congressional sanctions or possibly even criminal charges.

The physical altercation came a few months after a similar episode in the federal Senate. Men were the aggressors on that occasion.

InfoCDMX abolished

After the chaotic congressional confrontation, deputies with the Morena party and its allies — which dominate the Mexico City legislature — voted in favor of the disbandment of InfoCDMX, ensuring that the proposal was approved.

The replacement body, which will be part of the Mexico City Comptroller’s Office, will not be a collegial institution with representatives from different political parties, as had been agreed to by members of congressional committees.

A Morena party-backed decision to scrap the proposal to create a body of that nature precipitated Monday’s brawl.

“We’re not going to allow political agreements to be broken when we had agreed that the [new] transparency institute was going to be tripartite,” said Álvarez, the PAN deputy, before the melee began.

Mexico’s National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and the Protection of Personal Data, which was known as INAI, has already been disbanded after the federal Congress voted late last year to eliminate it and six other watchdog agencies. Opposition parties opposed the move, but their lawmakers weren’t involved in any physical confrontations with their Morena party counterparts.

With reports from Reforma, Infobae, La Jornada, Animal Político and El Universal