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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) _