When a Mexican presidential candidate proposed in a televised debate that public servants who steal should have their hands cut off, his comments were initially greeted with disbelief, and then mockery.

Hours later, however, there was a much grimmer reaction: drug cartel members dumped a dismembered corpse in the Pacific city of Acapulco with a sign saying that they were already enforcing the punishment.

Jaime Rodríguez, a cowboy-turned-state-governor who is pursuing the presidency as an independent candidate drew gasps during Sunday’s first presidential debate when he suggested – in apparent earnest – that Mexico could fight corruption by cutting off the hands of those who steal from the public purse.

The debate’s host twice asked him if he was speaking seriously, and after the debate Rodríguez – who campaigns under the nickname El Bronco – doubled down on his proposal, saying in a video: “It’’s something we have to do to end corruption in Mexico, which is a cancer.”

He subsequently said, “We have to be daring making proposals.”

On Tuesday, authorities found the dismembered body on the outskirts of Acapulco, the beach resort city which has become the city for relentless gang violence. Next to the body was a sign reading: “El Bronco has already said it: cutting off the hands of scum who steal is the first thing.”

Mexico’s presidential election in July comes against a backdrop of escalating violence and growing frustration with corruption.

Recent history suggests that appeals for extreme action against crime can pay electoral dividends.

The country’s Green party – which is not an environmental party – campaigned in 2009 with a manifesto calling for the introduction of the death penalty, and won 7% of the vote, a record showing for the group.

Four of the five candidates in 2018 have backed a continuation of the country’s militarised crackdown on drug cartels and criminal groups, although frontrunning candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador has controversially proposed offering an amnesty for those in the illegal drugs business.

“Amnesty doesn’t mean impunity,” López Obrador said on Sunday. “We have to attend to the causes that give rise to insecurity and violence, especially reducing poverty.”

A pre-debate poll put López Obrador 20 points ahead of his nearest opponent. Rodríguez drew 3% support in the same poll.

Rodríguez submitted hundreds of thousands of fake signatures in support of his independent candidacy, but was granted a place on the ballot after a bizarre decision from the country’s electoral tribunal.

After the debate, Rodríguez said that he had received 57,000 WhatsApp messages regarding his proposal to introduce amputation as a form of punishment, with 95% expressing support.

“He knows that the [amputation] proposal is a non-starter, but he also knows that people will talk about it. He’s going for easy points to score name recognition,” said Javier Garza, a journalist in the northern city of Torreón. “He doesn’t have ideas and prefers to play with people’s anger instead of offering a serious proposal. Textbook demagogue.”