THE SISTER CITIES REDUX, OR MAYBE WE WON'T AFTER ALL

By Juan Montoya
Everything was set for a public relations lovefest between the City of Brownsville and el Municipio de Matamoros to re-tie their bonds as sisterly cities this Tuesday.
But at the last moment, instead of having a repeat, Brownsville city officials decided to take a rain check. So instead of meeting in the midway point at the B and M Brownsville and Matamoros Bridge, the ceremony was cancelled.

Ironically, just a day after the city fathers dispelled the notion if the the sign of friendship between Mayor Tony Martinez and Ms. Mayor Leticia Salazar, U.S, Rep, FilemonVela was delivering a letter of inquiry to the Mexican government to solve the murderers of three U.S. siblings killed in the outskirts of Matamoros in which the mayor's personal bodyguard and paramilitary group (El Grupo Hercules) was allegedly involved.
In that letter, Vela asked Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong (Mexican Attorney General) in his visit to Matamoros that he mov e quickly to implement a secure economic zone along the Texas-Taamulipas border as the Mexican government is doing on its southern border.
Even more telling, however, is the fact that during last night's visit to the city by Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong (Mexican Attorney General), Salazar was not included in the official entourage.
If the move to re-establish the ties between Brownsville and Matamoros fell through, it may have been more attributable to the violence that has engulfed the city and the region. As if to underscore the situation here, on the very night that Chon was in Matamoros, at least five deaths were reported in Reynosa and two more in Matamoros.
Vela wrote Chon:

February 11, 2015
The Honorable Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong

Secretary of the Interior

Dear Secretary Osorio Chong:

I write seeking your assistance. Blocks away from where you are meeting today, in the Cathedral of Matamoros, lie the remains of my great uncle, Father Rogelio Sanchez. My mother, who eventually became the first female mayor of Brownsville, attended elementary school at Don Bosco in Matamoros. Since my childhood, I along with friends, family, and neighbors on both sides of this border have enjoyed the bicultural ties that those of us who live in the Rio Grande Valley, Matamoros and Reynosa have shared for generations.

I request your personal assistance and that of police and military forces to locate Ernesto and Jesus Garcia, brothers and United States Army veterans, who disappeared in Tamaulipas on February 2, 2015. Furthermore, the families of Fernando Lugo, Carlos Rendon, and Erica, Alex, and Jose Alvarado deserve to know what happened to their loved ones, and it is critical to communities on both sides of the border that these crimes are fully investigated and that the perpetrators are brought to justice.

President Enrique Peña Nieto recently announced plans to implement special secure economic zones in southern Mexico, and I would respectfully request that the Mexican government move swiftly to implement these same zones in the Matamoros/Reynosa region. Implementation of these zones should incorporate two courses of action. First, there should be an immediate and forceful effort to bring violence in Tamaulipas to an end. Second, enhancing employment and economic opportunities in Matamoros and Reynosa would help foster an environment that makes our border communities secure and prosperous over the long term.
I stand ready to provide whatever assistance may be necessary to accomplish what I know are these shared objectives.

Sincerely,
Filemon Vela
Member of Congress
Perhaps neither Martinez nor Salazar was told that on October 17,1995  a unanimous city commission made up of Mayor Henry Gonzalez and  commissioners Jackie Lockett, Ernie Hernandez, Pete Benvides and John Wood voted on a resolution to bind Brownsville to Matamoros as sister cities.
Now, there has been no shortage of sister cities declared by the city of Brownsville through resolutions.
These include resolutions for such exotic locales as the one on Matamoros, Lin An, China July 31, 2001, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico Jan. 20, 2004, Aguascalientes, MX. April 06, 2004, Santa Catarina, Mexico, Villa Capri, Italy, Nuevo Leon, NL, Mexico, Santiago, NL, Mexico,  Huejutla De Reyes, Hidalgo, MX , Sept. 08, 2009, Tampico, MX May 20, 2011, and one on Saltillo, Coahuila, MX April 2011, which the city commission never got around to present.
What relationship Brownsville Brownsville has with, say Huejutla De Reyes, Hidalgo, or  Lin An, China, is left up to your imagination.
In the case of Matamoros, perhaps "sisterly" is not exactly what the relationship that exists now. The idea, just maybe, was not propitious for the times.