Overview
The state of Nuevo León criminalises perceived ‘exposure’ and actual transmission.
Article 316 states that injuries are qualified and therefore subject to higher penalty where caused through the contagion of disease.
Article 337bis states that anyone who knows they are living with a serious and communicable disease and who “maliciously endangers the health of another”, is subject to a prison sentence of three months to three years and a fine of one hundred to four hundred days. If the disease is incurable, the penalty will be enhanced.
Under Article 140 these offences are considered “imprescriptible”, meaning not subject to lapses of time.
The 2017 report by the Mexican Network Against the Criminalisation of HIV suggested that there had been one HIV criminal case in Nuevo León.
Laws
Código Penal para el Estado de Nuevo León
Article 337bis. Risk of contagion
If someone with knowledge that he suffers from a serious and communicable disease, fraudulently puts the health of another in danger of contagion, three months to three years in prison and a fine of one hundred to four hundred quotas will apply. If it is an incurable disease or one that causes permanent serious damage, the sanction will be increased a little more. This crime will be prosecuted by complaint of the victim or offended.
Código Penal para el Estado de Nuevo León
Article 140
Both the action and the sanction will be imprescriptible in the following cases:
(…)
III.- Delinquent crimes committed by poisoning, asphyxia, gas, contagion of an incurable disease, or drugs when there are two or more victims.
Article 316
It is understood that injuries, injuries to children under twelve years of age and homicide are qualified when they are committed under one or more of the following circumstances:
(…)
III. When bombs or explosives, mines, fire, flood, poison or any other substance harmful to health, enervates or contagion of any disease are used as a means of execution;
Acknowledgements
Our thanks to la Red Mexicana de Organizaciones contra la criminalización del VIH for their research assistance to confirm current relevant legislation.