By Juan Montoya
Just when we thought the bottomless pit called the river weir project had died a turbulent death in the river of Mexican indifference, along come a new round of technocrats offering the Brownsville Public Utilities Board (and the city) another passel of equivocal promises of it becoming a reality.
These new groups are made up of local attorneys and political operatives connected to local politicians and “people in the know” in Mexico (wink).
This is even after the U.S. International Water and Boundary Commission was told in no uncertain terms by its Mexican counterpart, the Comisión Internacional de Limites y Aguas that it does not consider the Brownsville’s weir project a priority for the near future.
Two entities – the Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority and the Brownsville Weir Joint Venture – are trying to convince the PUB they hold the cards as far as contacts in Mexico and the powers that be on that side of the Rio Grande.
The CC MA, headed by Cameron County Administrator Pete Sepulveda told the board that the Mexican commission would have to determine if the Mexican government was interested in the project.
For a mere $8,000 to $9,000 a month and 60 days Sepulveda said he could tell them the answer.
The Joint Venture group was a little more pricey. For $1.8 million after getting the final approvals, plus another $200,000 for more ”studies,” they could swing the deal.
And lo and behold! Look what crawled out of its hole.
Just when we thought the bottomless pit called the river weir project had died a turbulent death in the river of Mexican indifference, along come a new round of technocrats offering the Brownsville Public Utilities Board (and the city) another passel of equivocal promises of it becoming a reality.
These new groups are made up of local attorneys and political operatives connected to local politicians and “people in the know” in Mexico (wink).
This is even after the U.S. International Water and Boundary Commission was told in no uncertain terms by its Mexican counterpart, the Comisión Internacional de Limites y Aguas that it does not consider the Brownsville’s weir project a priority for the near future.
Two entities – the Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority and the Brownsville Weir Joint Venture – are trying to convince the PUB they hold the cards as far as contacts in Mexico and the powers that be on that side of the Rio Grande.
The CC MA, headed by Cameron County Administrator Pete Sepulveda told the board that the Mexican commission would have to determine if the Mexican government was interested in the project.
For a mere $8,000 to $9,000 a month and 60 days Sepulveda said he could tell them the answer.
The Joint Venture group was a little more pricey. For $1.8 million after getting the final approvals, plus another $200,000 for more ”studies,” they could swing the deal.
And lo and behold! Look what crawled out of its hole.
Dannebaum's Louis Jones, who engineered the disappearance of a large chunk of the $21 million funds at the Brownsville Navigation District's rail-truck bridge, has offered to get the Mexican permits "free of charge."
This is, after all, the man who funnelled millions to companies in Mexico that he controlled and later denied it to special investigator Charles Willette. Only when Willette came upon corporation documents in Mexico naming Jones as an officer in those corporations did Jones stop denying he was involved.
Luckily for him, the Cameron County District Attorney and the U.S. Attorney were taking their siestas while this controversy swirled around them. Once DA Villalobos couldn't ignore the matter, he got off the hammock and twisted Dannenbaum's (and Jones') arms and got them to cough up a cool $1 million for disturbing his afternoon siesta.
The BND got nothing.
The Mexicans must be laughing their butts off as another round of pocho and gabacho pendejos comes begging with gifts of wine and greenbacks asking for their approval to some pet project. What part of "no" don't we understand?
History repeats itself, doesn't it?
When James K. Polk wanted Mexico to negotiate the Nueces Strip and California, someone told him that offering the Mexicans money under the table would do the trick. Nothing gets done with paying homage (and bucks) to the "mordida" tradition, they told him.
First Antonio Santa Ana was brought from Cuba, given a bundle of cash, and allowed to enter Veracruz so he could convince his countrymen to give up the land the gringos wanted. Then, after he took the money and turned on the gringos, Winfield Scott was also sent into buy some influence when the dictator fell out of favor.
Many officers with Scott frowned on the idea, but the wagons of dollars were sent into the besieged capital anyway to buy the end of the resistance. Nothing worked. In the end, the taking of the capital took blood and treasure. The "mordida" did not work. The gringos were taken for a ride.
Sepulveda should get back to supervising the county and stop trying to establish his international projects credentials. There is a scandal brewing over the mismanaged Public Works Department and his misplaced trust in the supervisors in that department. The man is simply stretched too thin to do a good job anywhere.
And Arial Chavez, the engineer for the Port of Brownsville, has no business trying to moonlight on this project. Does this mean that there's nothing to do at the port but watch it decay into the salty channel water?
Former Cameron County Judge Tony Garza used to marvel at the ability of PUB to spend large amounts of money on the project without the slightest consultation with the ratepayers. Garza, who must have known something because he opposed the weir, was the former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. If he thought there might be approval, doesn't the PUB think that he would have helped their cause? Brownsville, after all, is his home town.
Let's hope that the PUB doesn't follow in the BND and Imagine Brownsville tradition of throwing good money after bad.
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