An unfortunate comment made by Emilio Gonzalez last week has many wondering if the Jalisco governor is merely a man under great stress who made a human mistake, or if his vulgar reaction to public criticism reflects a more dangerous disdain for the rights of his constituents.

Last Thursday, after donating 15 million pesos to the Banco Diocesano de Alimentos, an area food bank, a seemingly tipsy governor went on the offensive against his detractors with a speech that translated roughly to: “I haven’t been governor long, but probably they’ve all found out by now that I couldn’t care less about what some few people are saying.”

Protestors counter Governor Emilio Gonzalez’s vulgarities with insults of their own during a march last weekend in the city center. Photo by F. Sanchez.

It’s hard to deny that Gonzalez has been a man under pressure over the last month. His decision to donate 90 million pesos for a new Catholic church, ostensibly to support religious tourism in Guadalajara, has been widely panned and generated several public protests that mocked the governor viciously.

The State Human Rights Commission prepared and filed a complaint against Gonzalez on behalf of opponents of the donation for the Santuario de los Martires.

The president of the State Electoral Institute asked the governor to temporarily suspend the recently-approved (by him) price hike in public transport. The electoral institue is now committed to legally and fairly addressing a demand for a public referendum from student unions who collected nearly 150,000 signatures. Gonzalez had previously dismissed the idea of a referendum, arguing that as only about one-third of Tapatios used public transport, it was not appropriately considered an issue open to public debate.

Any politician might feel a bit besieged in similar circumstances. But politics is a delicate game and notoriously merciless to those who lose control in public. Despite an immediate and apparently sincere apology, Gonzalez’s ill-timed obscenity has simply thrown fat on the fire. By the next day, his earthy speech spread like wildfire through the Internet, complete with equally vicious e-responses from constituents willing to answer in a similar spirit.

More public protests were immediately planned. And opposition parties announced that they would seek a psychiatric evaluation of the governor’s mental and emotional condition.

In contrast to the governor’s schoolboy taunts, individual politicians and institutions reacted in a smooth and professional manner, decrying his expression and the implied disrespect for constituents. The contrast between the higher ground, and that traveled by the governor and members of the public who have sunk to hurling insults back at Gonzalez’s mother, could not be more clear. Gonzalez, many have come to believe, is intransigent, a poor team player and imprudent. He also appears fully convinced that a democratic election gives an official a blank check rather than a right to a reciprocal civilized dialogue with the public.

Placing the cherry on top of the governor’s public misery, Ricardo Rodriguez, state coordinator of Gonzalez’s party, the National Action Party (PAN), announced that the governor’s actions have damaged the party’s image and that of Jalisco. On Wednesday, Congress unanimously decided to re-examine the legalities of the Santuario donation.

Gonzalez may not be lacking in supporters, particularly when it comes to the 90-million-peso contribution to the Santuario de los Martires. But the sentiments of those supporters, usually casting the governor as a besieged holy warrior, are not likely to calm the fears of critics who allege that the Santuario donation, like many of the governor’s actions, is driven more by faith than by economics:

“Don’t give up Emilio. Long live Christ the King!” read a bumper sticker that appeared on Guadalajara’s streets this week.

Unfortunately, unless the governor learns to control his temper and play nice with his opponents, divine intervention may eventually be all that can save him from becoming the loneliest boy in the political playground.