ARGUELLES, PERSON OF INTEREST ON MEXICAN CORRUPTION LIST FETED AT UTB

By Juan Montoya
Just last month the Mexican Procuradoria General de la Repubica (PGR), the equivalent of the U.S. Dept. of Justice, issued a directive restricting the movement out of the country of three former Tamaulipas governors and 43 other people for their alleged connections to organized crime.
The list included many prominent former government bureaucrats and not a few businessmen.
Among those was Sergio Ramon Arguelles Gutierrez, known as the "King of the Maquilas," one of Matamoros' most prominent businessmen with extensive business and real estate holdings in Brownsville and the Rio Grande Valley, including numerous properties in Rancho Viejo, South Padre Island and McAllen.
All that notwithstanding, on Friday, March 23, the The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College School of Business will honor Arguelles and two other area business leaders at the Business Appreciation Breakfast at 7:30 a.m. in the Student Union El Gran Salón.
Ray Hunt Chairman, President and CEO Hunt Consolidated, Inc., will be the keynote speaker.
Besides Arguelles, area businessmen Jo Rae Wagner, of Harlingen, and and Rene Capistran, of SpawGlass fame from Brownsville, will be honored at the event.
According to the news release by the UTB-TSC School of Business, Arguelles, a native of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, attended Texas Southmost College as a young man. He founded his firm, FINSA, 35 years ago to provide Mexico’s emerging maquiladoras with the manufacturing facilities and services they needed to grow.
"Sergio and his son, Sergio Argüelles Jr., have led FINSA in the development of 14 Industrial Parks containing 60 million square feet of manufacturing space serving approximately 1,600 firms employing 200,000 people.
The recent acquisition of Rancho Viejo Country Club increases FINSA’s presence in the U.S. Argüelles and his family have created FINSA Foundation which provides scholarships to children and young adults in various cities in Mexico."
However, the Mexican media and PGR are not as charitable as UTB-TSC.
Various news accounts say that the elder Arguelles is known in narcopolitico circles as "El Cucaracho," and that his $4 million purchase of Ranco Viejo, where he lives now, was made with proceeds from questionable sources.
He was one of those connected with former Tamaulipas Governor Tomas Yarrington by the PGR and his movement ordered restricted.
However, according to the breakfast coordinator, the event has been sold out two weeks ago. The price, $20 per person, apparently was of no concern to the companies that purchased the 220 seats available.
Among the sponsors listed on the program are none other than Brownsville's Public Utility Board, the Brownsville Economic Development Corporation (BEDC), Ambiotech, Burton, McCumber and Cortez, Cardenas Development, Fred Rusteberg's International Bank of Commerce (listed in a DEA complaint as one of the banks that funneled millions in drug profits from Matamoros to San Antonio), FINSA, and Gobar Systems, among others.
The invocation will be delivered by the Rev. Armand Matthew and the greeting and introduction of honerees will be given by UTB-TSC President Julirt Garcia.
So as the Mexican authorities continue to seek the prosecution of the three former governors and those identified on the list for alleged corruption – including Arguelles – this has not deterred the UTB-TSC Business School administrators or the Garcia administration from recognizing him for his "achievements."
As the news rlease states at the bottom of the annoncement: "The School of Business, which has over 1,500 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the spring 2012 semester, is committed to providing graduates with the education and training needed to successfully lead the region’s businesses and launch new enterprises that will grow the economy."
Onward through the fog.