DONNA SOURCE: A DOZEN OR MORE ELECTED OFFICIALS IN FED SIGHTS IN VOTER-FRAUD INVESTIGATION

By Juan Montoya
A longtime political activist in Donna has told this blog that the federal government has more than a dozen elected officials dead in its sights as the voting-fraud investigation that has claimed the life of the Donna Independent School District Alfredo Lugo though suicide.
Last Wednesday, his body was discovered hanging at his home.
The suicide is said to be linked to the indictment of two politiqueras who federal prosecutors say were paid by some candidates for political office and that they in turn paid voters to cast their votes on their behalf.
On December 18, the FBI filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas charging Guadalupe Escamilla and Rebecca Gonzalez under 42 US Code 1973(c) under the section penalizing someone who "pays or offers to pay or accepts payment either for registration to vote or voting in a federal election..."
The two "politiqueras" were arrested after an FBI investigation determined they were paying voters money, food, and cigarettes for their votes.
The investigation alleges that the two worked as  "politiqueras" during the 2012 primary election and the general election.
During the general election, federal candidates were on the ballot, including candidates for state office and local positions.
Escamilla allegedly told an FBI agent that she was working for candidates running for school board in Donna.
According to the federal criminal complaint, Escamilla was being paid by two candidates to get people to vote for them. The complaint states that she was instructed by the candidates to pay any voter that asked to be paid for their vote. The document states that Escamilla paid the voters between $3 and $10 for their vote and gave some of them food and cigarettes.
Gonzalez told the FBI she worked as a "politiquera" for candidates who were running in the 2012 primary election and candidates who were up for seats on the school board in Donna. The complaint did not list the other offices where the candidates might have been involved in the cash-for-votes scam. Aside from the Donna ISD races, the ballot included drainage districts, county sheriff and commissioners, Texas State Board of Education, and state representatives. It is unknown whether any specific candidates have been targeted in the probe.
She allegedly told agents she was paid $40 on multiple occasions for her work as a "politiquera" and paid other $5 to $10 for them to vote.
The two were said to have been active in the 2012 primary and the general election in November.
Lugo had been a DISD trustee for 16 years and won reelection in November 2012.
The political activist said she has been active in Donna politics for most of her life and that she expects more indictments of elected officials from the school board, county and other levels of government who might be implicated in paying local politiqueras to hustle votes for them.
She said that the paying of votes is a recent phenomenon in Donna, and that recent political upheavals between two major political factions were responsible for the turmoil.
"No one paid people to vote in the past," she said. "The people would just be picked up and the voters could vote for the candidate the politiquera wanted or they could vote for whoever they wanted. That was the way it worked. But now with the fight going on between these two groups, things have gotten out of control."
She said that Lugo's funeral was a standing-room only affair because the man had been a good public servant, regardless of what the indictments might later reveal.
"You could go to his house or to his office and he would always treat you very well and try to help you," she said. "You couldn't park for around two blocks from the church where the service was held. He was very well liked."