The Americas | Mexico’s mid-term elections

Bucking the system

With cautious backing from business, a political pugilist challenges the establishment

|MONTERREY

SWARTHY, with eyes that brood like Sylvester Stallone’s, Jaime Rodríguez 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.”

This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “Bucking the system”

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