Bucking the system

摘要

Swarthy, with eyes that brood like Sylvester Stallone's, Jaime Rodriguez cuts an odd figure in a room of business executives-and he revels in it. He paces around in black cowboy boots. He tells stories of his impoverished childhood, always quick to throw in a ribald quip: "I'm restless. My mother had ten children (well, my father helped a bit)." He's mischievously, maddeningly evasive. When a questioner asks for his plan of government, he replies, "send me a WhatsApp." Mr Rodriguez, who calls himself El Bronco, wants to make history. On June 7th he has a chance of becoming the first regional governor elected without the support of a political party, thanks to a reform in 2014 that opened the door to independent candidates. He is running in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, one of nine up for grabs. Opinion polls put him neck-and-neck with his main rival, who is from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (pri) of Mexico's president, Enrique Pena Nieto. But he could be pipped at the post.