DOES ANYONE SEE THE $25 MILLION GORILLA IN THE ROOM?

By Juan Montoya
The spin control media coverage of the press conference in Brownsville mayor Tony Martinez was by all measures, a phenomenal success.
Martinez and his son "Trey" (The third Benigno) hosted a press conference for local broadcasters and later,
provided interviews for the media by the parents of Zetas-slain ICE agent Jaime Zapata from their law offices.

There was talk about filing the lawsuit against the federal government for the sake of "closure," to "prevent the same thing happening to the children of other parents," etc.

The pliant media reps never mentioned in the broadcast (or the newspaper accounts) that Zapata's family and the family of the other agent injured by a group of Zetas who stopped their bullet-proof car on the Mexico City-San Luis Potosi highway wanted $12.5 million apiece for the loss of their son and in the case of his partner Victor Avila, for the injuries he sustained in the attack. Both families filed a $25 million wrongful death claim against the U.S. government.

Zapata's family says officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) knew that the men who bought the guns used in Zapata's murder were buying weapons bound for Mexico, but did nothing to stop them.
Zapata, of Brownsville, was serving as U.S. adviser in Mexico when he and Agent Victor Avila were gunned down on a highway in Mexico. Avila survived and has joined the case.
Now, $25 million ain't nothing to sneeze at, but that small  fact apparently did not seem to be of that much importance to the media types, who perhaps, as Brownsville Mayor Tony Martinez whose son Trey is representing the Zapatas said: "It's not the money that's important, here."
Back in May of 2011 we published a post outlining the list of the 17 questions that the Zapata family had for the federal government regarding the rules agents must follow when working in Mexico. Way back then we realized that it was easy to see that a lawsuit was in the offing.
Now that it has come to pass it merges neatly with the congressional probe into the Fast and Furious program that the Dept. of Justice through the ATF implemented to attempt to trace te flow of arms to the drug cartels in Mexico.
Already, the congressional committee has held US Attorney Eric Holder in contempt for refusing to provide them with thousands of documents related to the implementation of the program. At least one of the weapons that were used in the attack was said to have been acquired by the gunmen in the Zapata attack.
In fact, a report submitted by the slain ICE agent indicated that of 80 weapons seized in a similar program in Texas, some 55 were "walked" into Mexico under the eyes of the ATF.

Also, one of the weapons that was obtained via a straw purchase in the U.S. and carried across the Mexican border has been identified. This one is “connected to the murder of Immigration and Customs Zapata,” which took place in February 2011, sources told the US Open Borders blog.

And Armed American Radio reported that Zapata was investigating Fast and Furious weapons—despite Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s sworn testimony that there was no connection.
There are also some politics involved in the local case. The Martinez (both dad and son) were heavy contributors to the Obama campaign and there was some talk of the mayor receiving some sort of appointment (an ambassadorship?) as a reward for his support. Now that he has sued the Obama administration, will that sour the deal? Or will his cut on the $25 million make the the denial of an appointment bearable?