The most controversial proposals of El Bronco, such as that of “mochar hands” corrupt

In 2018, Jaime Rodríguez Calderón, “El Bronco”, won the independent candidacy to contest for the presidency of Mexico and one of his most controversial proposals was to “wet hands” officials or politicians who engaged in acts of corruption, this as an exemplary measure to end this evil that afflicts the country.

Jaime Rodríguez Calderón was arrested this Tuesday, March 15, for his alleged responsibility for the diversion of resources from the treasury of Nuevo León, a state of which he was governor from 2015 to 2021.

On April 22, 2018, one of the debates between the presidential candidates took place, where “El Bronco” said it was necessary to “wet the hands of criminals” and later clarified that this measure could be applied to public officials. Due to the media attention generated by this proposal, Rodríguez Calderón said he was willing to send this initiative to the Chamber of Deputies for discussion.

As part of his promises, he assured that his mission would be to “get the güevones out of government”, and on social support, he indicated that people should be helped as long as they committed to work. He also proposed eliminating government agencies that were not useful to the federal government, mainly the Ministry of Social Development, which in his opinion served only to generate more poor people.

Rodríguez Calderón came to the government of Nuevo León also by independent means, thanks to peculiar proposals that came from “listening to the people”, for that reason in 2018 he asked citizens for ideas to design his electoral campaign and established communication channels in which he would receive all kinds of suggestions.

Continuing his presidential campaign at that time, he took the proposal further and launched a new one: to create a “Citizens Court” independent of the judiciary to take legal action against corrupt, drug traffickers, kidnappers and rapists.

As presidential candidate, Rodríguez Calderón justified that “of these four crimes deserve that there be a court that does not depend on the president, but rather a citizen's court that justifies, that they see and check so as not to commit injustices.”

The then licensed governor of Nuevo León argued that this model of justice was inspired by Singapore, where some justice measures are taken that include corporal punishment.

Questioned during his campaign tours about the model of justice he intended to establish in Mexico, “The Bronco” once declared that “this has to be a court similar to the one that was put in Singapore.” But given the controversy that aroused among his detractors, the northern politician clarified that the members of the supposed committee should be very prepared because he said “we have to do it professionally, not with our liver in hand”.

A section of the population applauded this proposal by “El Bronco”, who received applause at the end of April 2018 during a campaign event in Tlaquepaque, Jalico, where a few weeks earlier a criminal group had cut off the hands of six people. According to investigations by State authorities, this act would have been about a settling of accounts between organized crime groups.

During his presidential campaign, Jaime Rodríguez Calderón also went so far as to propose the following to encourage citizens to vote for him:

- Reduce Income Tax (ISR) from 35 to 27 percent and Value Added Tax (VAT) from 16 to 10 percent.

- Facilitate the payment of taxes.

- Eliminate the minimum wage so that the worker is paid based on his merits.

- Eliminate public funding for parties and the elimination of multimember legislators.

- Reduce government spending by 30 percent and reduce the number of secretariats.

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