“It took us four years and four months, but we finally did it,” tweeted Samuel García, the Movimiento Cuidadano governor of the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, celebrating the arrest of his predecessor, Jaime Helidoro Rodríguez, “El Bronco,” on Tuesday, March 15.
While serving as a senator, García accused Rodríguez of using public officials to collect signatures for his unsuccessful presidential campaign of 2018, a scandal that became known as “Broncofirmas.”
Mainly due to García’s insistence, Rodríguez was formally charged with misappropriation of public funds last week.
Despite many inconsistencies identified in the collection of the 876,000 signatures required to put Rodríguez on the 2018 presidential ballot as an independent candidate, Mexico’s Federal Electoral Institute eventually allowed him to compete. He gained just five percent of the vote in the election won by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador by a landslide.
A subsequent investigation into Broncofirmas determined that 572 state employees participated in the collection of signatures, but only 11 were dismissed from their posts.
The charges against Rodríguez were brought by the Special Prosecutor for Electoral Crimes (FEDE).
As of press time, Rodríguez remained in jail pending further legal proceedings.