MONTERREY, Mexico, (Reuters) – “One dead son, one kidnapped two-year-old daughter and 2,800 bullet holes in my truck” is no typical campaign slogan. Then again, the man who may become the first state governor in modern Mexico without a political party is no typical politician.
Jaime Rodriguez, alias “El Bronco,” would cause one of the biggest upsets in Mexican political history if his anti-establishment campaign claims the wealthy northern state of Nuevo Leon in midterm elections to be held next Sunday.
A former member of President Enrique Pena Nieto’s centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, the 57-year-old Rodriguez launched his bid thanks to a change in the law that now allows independent candidates to run for high office.
Tapping into anger over political corruption scandals, sickening drug gang violence and anemic economic growth, his run has become a litmus test for the electorate’s desire to break with years of political apathy.
“I’m fighting against a system that’s old, out of date and obsolete,” Rodriguez said in May. “There’s a political aristocracy with an incredible egotism, with an incredible arrogance that doesn’t accept that the country has problems.”
