OUT OF THE BAG; MARTINEZ A UNITED BROWNSVILLE PLANT

By Juan Montoya
When Cesar de Leon announced his candidacy for the At-Large "A" city commission seat, people wondered who else would run for the position left vacant when Estela Vasquez-Chavez left the city and resigned her post?
At stake was Mayor Tony Martinez-Rose Gowen-Deborah Portillo-Rick Longoria majority propping the United Brownsville Shadow Government fronting to IBC President Fred Rusteberg and UT Institute of the America's Julieta Garcia.
So far, that combination of bootlickers has managed to usurp elected government and hand over tp the UT System anything that bunch has wanted. If they needed pricey real estate, there was the City of Brownsville's response to their Request For Proposals practically giving away 80 acres of prime publicly-owned real estate at bargain- basement prices.
Did they want a pristine 48-acre park at a measly $6.5 million? Sure, there's Lincoln Park. So what if when they move the park across from a sewer plant it will expose the kiddos and elderly users of the park to the smells of human excrement?
But wait, said District 1 commissioner Rick Longoria – who by the way has earned his 30 pieces of silver by landing gigs for his DJ business form the various publicly-funded entities and corporations in return for his support – there are chemicals that will mitigate the nasty smell.
Really? Why are those magic chemical suddenly available when the needs of the UT System are in play? Does it mean that Longoria was willing to expose "his people" to the stench of shit without the mitigation until he learned that the university wanted their park?

Now we understand that Longoria looked long and hard for a candidate to counter de Leon and hit upon Southmost native Gerardo Martinez to carry water for his United Brownsville masters. The other candidates who were not palatable to the UB crowd were David Belleperche and gadfly Roberto Uresti.

Obviously, they would rather have someone they could count on to stay bought. Martinez, an MIT engineering graduate, works for a maquiladora in Matamoros. That outfit is called Avago Technologies and it is headquartered in Singapore. They're a high-tech electronic component company who manufacture cell-phone components and come to the U.S.-Mexico border to acquire cheap labor in Mexico and a ready market their products in the nearby U.S. market.

People like Martinez – with their high-tech degrees – show them how to "increase efficiency and output," in other words, how to speed up the production line and gain maximum profits from these low-paid workers. A look at their corporate sheet shows that the Matamoros workers don't get retirement or other benefits the company grants to other foreign workers where they have similar plants.
The very nature of maquiladoras – or in-bond plants – is to take manufacturing jobs from the United States and have cheap labor produce their products to later reintroduce them to the United States markets with little or no tariffs.
Left unanswered are also questions of accessibility when Martinez is working in Mata and an emergency arises. How will he get across the river if the bridges are congested? Will his employer allow him to miss his work assignments to attend the city meetings at 4 and 5:30 p.m. when his workday extends well past 7 p.m.? 

With Rusteberg already enjoying the support of the likes of Ernie Hernandez and his established vote-harvesting team to keep Martinez in the mayor's office and continue his access to public funds and assets for his friends, the addition of Martinez Squared to the city commission is a no-brainer.
United Brownsville has made the marriage of this area's economic development and the fly-by-night maquiladora industry a cornerstone of their scheme to hijack the future of Brownsville generations. People like Longoria, now Martinez, and the likes of PUB's Emmanuel Vasquez are barrio bootlickers who all too-willing to help this bunch hijack any likelihood of a better future for our city and children for a chance at a crumb that falls off their table.