Luis Estrada’s film La ley de Herodes (1999) is set in 1949. Juan Vargas, an honest clerk, is made mayor of the village of San Pedro de los Saguaros. His padrino político, his political godfather, is López, the private secretary of the governor. López advises him to use his power and gives him a gun. By the end of the film, Vargas is a federal deputy.
According to El Universal, the state film institute IMCINE tried to pull the film from the Acapulco film festival in November 1999. The film went on to win nine Ariel awards.