Herod's Law - Plot

Plot

After the mayor of the fictional village San Pedro de los Saguaros is lynched by angry villagers, a petty PRI party member named Juan Vargas (Damián Alcázar) is appointed temporary mayor by the state governor. At first the new mayor attempts to do good but a lack of funds cripples his efforts, and the bribe of a brothel owner sets him on the path to corruption. Seeking help from his superior, the secretary to the PRI governor, he is given a copy of the constitution of Mexico and a revolver and is told that the only law is Herod's law: literally translated: "either you get fucked or you get buggered." (O te chingas o te jodes).

When Vargas thus has become the executive, legislature and judiciary of the village all in one person he soon becomes corrupt, first accepting a bribe from brothel owner Doña Lupe, and soon moving on to extort all of the villagers. When questioned, he declares that he is funding a new project to bring electricity to the village - a farce which is revealed when only one utility pole is raised. Vargas becomes progressively more corrupt, levying false accusations against the local doctor (an obstreperous PAN mayoral candidate), and killing Doña Lupe after she resists his authoritarianism. Vargas becomes obsessed with power to the point where the whole town despises him. Then, Vargas seems to meet his demise when he is surrounded by a crowd of torch-wielding villagers, but reappears at the very end of the film delivering a speech to the Mexican National Congress. As Vargas says in his speech that the PRI must stay in power forever, the film cuts to the scene of a new mayor coming to San Pedro de los Saguaros in exactly the same way that Vargas did.