Monterrey, Mexico – In August 2020, the then-senator for the Mexican state of Nuevo León, Samuel García, was criticized on social media for scolding his wife, the influencer Mariana Rodríguez, for partially showing her leg in an Instagram broadcast.
“Lower your leg! Don’t go around showing your leg! I married you for me, not for you to go around flashing, ”García snapped to his wife in the video broadcast by Rodríguez’s account, which has 1.6 million followers.
The episode was described as misogynistic by feminist groups and unleashed a wave of criticism against García that forced the lawyer, who began his career in politics as a member of the state Congress in 2015, to apologize to his wife in another video.
Despite this and other controversies that went viral on the networks, García, 33, a candidate for governor of Nuevo León for the small party Movimiento Ciudadano (MC), won in June 6 election in which citizens renewed the Chamber of Deputies at the federal level and 15 governorates.
According to official figures, García won the governorship with 36.68% of the votes, nine percentage points more than his immediate rival, Adrián de la Garza, of a coalition, made up of the Institutional Revolutionary (PRI) and the Democratic Revolution (PRD) parties.
Paradoxically, the two most voted are investigated by the Attorney General’s Office for different crimes and, in García’s case, the investigation includes his father, his wife, and his father-in-law for alleged illegal financing of the campaign.
Analysts maintain that, in contrast to the results at the national level where the ruling party Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena) is ahead in at least 11 governorates, the electorate of Nuevo León opted for a popular candidate on social networks outside of the traditional parties and that he offered to be a counterweight to the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
“I voted for Samuel because he is young and he offered to provide security. And I wanted to send a message to the president, that I think he has done everything wrong, how he has handled the pandemic crisis, I am not happy with him for so many deaths, missing women, there is so much insecurity, “said Yesenia Aguilar, 40, during a García event organized in the iconic Macroplaza of the city of Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo León.
According to official figures, García won the governorship with 36.68% of the votes, nine percentage points more than his immediate rival, Adrián de la Garza, of a coalition made up of the Institutional Revolutionary (PRI) and the Democratic Revolution (PRD) parties. ).
Paradoxically, the two most voted are investigated by the Attorney General’s Office for different crimes and, in García’s case, the investigation includes his father, his wife and his father-in-law for alleged illegal financing of the campaign.
Analysts maintain that, in contrast to the results at the national level where the ruling party Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena) is ahead in at least 11 governorates, the electorate of Nuevo León opted for a popular candidate on social networks outside of the traditional parties and that he offered to be a counterweight to the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
“I voted for Samuel because he is young and he offered to provide security. And I wanted to send a message to the president, that I think he has done everything wrong, how he has handled the pandemic crisis, I am not happy with him for so many deaths, missing women, there is so much insecurity, “said Yesenia Aguilar, 40, during a García event organized in the iconic Macroplaza of the city of Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo León.
Juan Manuel Ramos, director of Redes Quinto Poder, a civil association dedicated to promoting government transparency in Nuevo León, said that García’s success at the polls is not only due to social networks but also to his critical role towards the governor’s administration outgoing Jaime Rodríguez, “El Bronco”, and the López Obrador government.
Source: Excelsior
