Nuevo León Governor Jaime “El Bronco” Rodríguez, known for being blunt, labelled southerners lazy earlier this week. A southerner promptly labelled Rodríguez an idiot and suggested his tongue be removed.

At an event in Monterrey Tuesday, the 2018 presidential candidate said “the north [of Mexico] overcomes adversity while the south and southeast have the blessing of nature but the misfortune of laziness.”

The governor, well-known for using blunt and colorful language, added: “I don’t regret saying it that way because the policy of government must be to encourage those who want to work.”

After a backlash against his comments, Rodríguez said hours later that he had been misinterpreted and had not made any reference to laziness.

“I said that the north has greater adversity and that the south and southeast has greater possibilities, I said blessing, I didn’t say laziness . . .” he said.

One person who wasn’t prepared to let El Bronco’s remarks slide was Veracruz lawmaker and former candidate for governor Héctor Yunes Landa.

In a video posted to his social media accounts, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) federal deputy defended Mexico’s southerners before dubbing Rodríguez a buey – an ox, or in colloquial Mexican Spanish, an idiot.

“It’s true that those of us who live in the south have the blessing of the land but it’s also true that we work it every day. That’s why we’re national leaders in several crops like coffee, oranges, lemons, bell peppers, pineapple and bananas . . . We also have, precisely in my state Veracruz, the largest number of cattle in the country. Cows, bulls and bueyes [oxen] Bronco, like you,” he said.

Yunes also demanded a public apology from the governor and proposed cutting off his tongue – a riff on Rodríguez’s proposal during a presidential debate last year to cut off the hands of thieves.

“We don’t tolerate insults from anyone . . . I demand Bronco that you publicly apologize to Veracruzanos and all Mexicans who live in the south of the republic . . . I regret not having the imprudence that characterizes you but if I had it, as you once proposed cutting off the hands of thieves, I would propose cutting off the tongues of bigmouths,” he said.

Rodríguez is the second former presidential candidate in as many months to offend Mexico’s southern states after 2012 hopeful Gabriel Quadri claimed on social media in January that Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas were a burden on the rest of Mexico.

Source: Infobae (sp), El Universal (sp)