Gobierno de México

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador celebrates the Senate's passage of a constitutional reform ending presidential immunity in Mexico.

Mexico’s Senate has approved a constitutional reform last week that eliminates legal immunity for the president.

The reform will allow a sitting president to be charged and tried for treason, corruption, electoral crimes and other crimes a citizen can be charged with — a fact current President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is celebrating

"This is truly a historic act," he said during a press conference Thursday.

The Senate's approval of the measure is a step toward fulfilling a promise López Obrador made during his 2018 presidential campaign to end presidential immunity.

Now passed by both houses of Mexico’s Congress, the reform also needs approval from a majority of Mexico’s 32 state legislatures to amend the constitution.

The president says he expects states to ratify the reform and for it to be in force before the end of the year.