VILLARREAL NOT ONLY BUTT AT EARTHFEST CELEBRATION

By Juan Montoya
There were bands, student cookoffs, antojito and folk craft stands, and other exhibits praising Mother Earth and all that's good an pure in this world.
And then there was Brownsville City Commissioner John Villarreal going ballistic when he visited the linear park located in the shadow of the federal courthouse where matters dealing with free speech and the glories of a democracy are decided. Ironically, that's where currently, the cases dealing with corruption, racketeering and influence peddling are currently the rage as the Abel Limas-related corruption prosecution is underway.
When Villarreal visited the park with the vendors and their assembled tents and tables, he grew livid when he saw the stand put up by Mary Helen Flores with the Citizens Against Voter Abuse (CAVA) where she was handing out literature urging citizens to denounce voter fraud.
On piece of literature dealt with a $5,000 reward for anyone whose tip would lead to a conviction.
Villarreal immediately caught the attention of EarthFest organizers and demanded that they force Flores to remove the offending literature and that they shut down her stand. When that didn't immediately work, he enlisted the aid of City Manager Charlie Cabler, no stranger to a strand of rubber hose to get the job done.
The offending materials included her American flag that served as a backdrop on her literature table.
Then, while a crowd of participants looked on – including at least one municipal judge and Rio Bravo Wildlife Institute coordinator Joe Boswell – he claimed before the startled spectators that he had the support of fellow commissioner Melissa Zamora and Mayor Tony Martinez not to fund the EarthFest activities next year because of this indiscretion.
Now, Flores and most other participants certainly didn't expect anyone – least of all an elected city commissioner – to be for voter abuse, much less to make a spectacle of himself defending the right of anyone to commit voter fraud. Instead of adding to the spectacle of the livid commissioner, Flores instead opted to collect her literature and put it back in her car and close her stand. Mejor un loco que dos, no?
Who would have thunk, uh?
But, then again, this is the same John Villarreal who has reveled in his relationship with the Ernie Hernandez clan who have been tagged by more than one accuser of harvesting write-in votes from elderly voters. In fact, in his race in the last city commission elections, Villarreal openly courted the support of Ernie and wife Norma. In fact, his treasurer was listed as Erin Hernandez Garcia, Ernie's daughter who defended the use of politiqueras in his Pct. 2 comissioner's race and is a candidate for JP 2-2 on May 29.
Perhaps the commissioner thought that Flores and her group were giving voter abuse a bad name. Or perhaps there weren't enough cigarette butt costumes to go around and he was upset he had to do without one when he ran into the unfortunate CAVA activist.
"We'll see whether he goes through with his threat and whether commissioner Zamora and Mayor Martinez really take side with his defense of voter abuse," said a bystander who witnessed the fray. "I seriously doubt they would do it. But we'll see. It''s like Villarreal was saying that we like our voter abuse fine, thank you."