FLY FRONTERA PRESIDENT REPORTEDLY THREATENED BY LOCAL BLOGGER WIGHTMAN SAYING HE REPRESENTED ZAMORA, MARTINEZ

By Juan Montoya
Just when we'd thought we'd heard the last of miscreant blogger Robert Wightman, he surprised us (unpleasantly, it would appear).
After we ran an article on the reluctance of commissioner Melissa Zamora to believe that Fly Frontera and its industry-leading regional airline operation wanted to make Brownsville the hub of its north Mexican regional plans, the nuts started coming out of the woodwork.
One comment in particular caught out eye so we looked closer into it.
We have confirmed now that local blogger Wightman has been posing as a Brownsville "reporter" and contacted president Jim Gallagher, president of Public Charters that is planning to start offering competitive airline service primarily between Tampico, Tamaulipas, and Monterrey, Nuevo Leon and Brownsville by June 1 out of the Brownsville-South Padre Island international Airport.
Reports indicate that Wightman claimed to be representing Zamora and mayoral candidate Tony Martinez, and warning Gallagher that he would "expose" him and his company for alleged associations with felons, child molesters, etc.
Additionally, the blogger also warned the firm's president that Martinez (once he got in office) would act to terminate the economic incentives that are currently being negotiated between the firm and the city and economic development entities.
Apparently, Gallagher was flabbergasted by Wightman's threats to "expose" his efforts and his company to bring jobs and new vigor to the city's efforts to establish a viable aviation industry here. (That's Wightman in the picture above with his witness, local attorney Rick Zayas, discussing strategy in his ongoing case against the Brownsville Herald.)
Today's Brownsville Herald indicated that Gallagher was interested in setting up shop in Brownsville by Accion America president Carlos Quintanilla (a persistent sort) after the community activist saw the opportunity to bring the company to Brownsville and take advantage of the capital flight by violence-weary businessmen in northern Mexico. With the public roads becoming shooting galleries and under the control of drug cartels, what better way to provide a safe fast method of travel to entrepreneurs from cities such as Tampico and Monterrey?
The idea seems to have appealed to the Mexican customers and Fly Frontera spokespersons say the response from them has been short of phenomenal.
"There are people who want to pre-purchase tickets on a daily basis because they find it necessary to travel between those cities and Brownsville to tend to their investments and homes here," said one. "It would be a shame for all these efforts to be derailed because some fool off his medications decided to take it upon himself to interfere with a legitimate, professional business transaction."
Gallagher says Public Charters is negotiating with the city to get a wants a minimum revenue guarantee capped at $2 million over two years, the same amount the city agreed to in order to land American Eagle. In return, Fly Frontera would set up shop and start with a $5 million investment in equipment and employment.
So far, every inquiry into the bona fides of the company have turned out positive. With the introduction of the Wightman factor, it will be interesting to see whether local elected and economic development officials will turn down a firm that has already received inquiries from Harlingen and McAllen airports who want them to go there.
In any case, it would seem to us that the best that Zamora and Martinez could do so as not to have the blogger (asserting he represents them) derail the project, would be to make it explicitly clear to Gallagher and everyone else that he does not.