Mexico: dismembered corpse dumped after presidential candidate says 'cut off hands'
Source: Guardian
Jaime Rodríguez’s grim suggestion for punishing those who steal from the public purse drew incredulty and mockery, then terrifying reality
David Agren in Mexico City
@el_reportero
Tue 24 Apr 2018 13.40 EDT
When a Mexican presidential candidate proposed in a televised debate that public servants who steal should have their hands cut off, his comments were initially greeted with disbelief, and then mockery.
Hours later, however, there was a much grimmer reaction: drug cartel members dumped a dismembered corpse in the Pacific city of Acapulco with a sign saying that they were already enforcing the punishment.
Jaime Rodríguez, a cowboy-turned-state-governor who is pursuing the presidency as an independent candidate drew gasps during Sunday’s first presidential debate when he suggested – in apparent earnest – that Mexico could fight corruption by cutting off the hands of those who steal from the public purse.
The debate’s host twice asked him if he was speaking seriously, and after the debate Rodríguez – who campaigns under the nickname El Bronco – doubled down on his proposal, saying in a video: “It’’s something we have to do to end corruption in Mexico, which is a cancer.”
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/24/corpse-dumped-in-acapulco-after-presidential-candidate-says-cut-off-hands
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