RRUNRRUN MOLE IN MR. AMIGO FOILED, WRONG SLIM YERNO

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Well, it's time to eat a little urraca.

Our heretofore reliable mole deep within the bowels of the Mr. Amigo Association got the wrong son in law.

We had been told that the Mr. Amigo 2018 selection would be Fernando Romero, one of the sons-in-law of  Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim. Romero is married to Soumaya Slim, one of the tycoon’s daughters.

It turns out that it was the other son-in-law who was chosen as Mr. Amigo.

This one is Arturo Elias Ayub, who is married to Johanna Slim, another of the Slim' s daughters.

Mr. Amigo Association never tires of lifting relative unknowns from Mexico to take their place among the pantheon of illustrious men and women of politics and the arts from that country.

Who, you may well ask, is Ayub?

Did he find a cure for cancer? Is he more famous than Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the new Mexican president?

The short answer is: The son-in-law of Mexico's richest man, the billionaire Carlos Slim, the Mexican businessman said to have been worth $65 billion in 2017 and estimated to make almost $9 million a day ($8,947,848.52), or about $310.68 per second.

Apparently, the cabal at Mr. Amigo believes that its established practice of hobnobbing with the rich and famous is the main criteria for the selection of its annual celebrity to coincide with Brownsville's Charro Days celebration.

The idea that the residents of the poorest community in the United States will wine and dine one of the sons-in-law of the world's richest man and host his entourage and pay for his entertainment is thing short of brilliant, if not callous and insensitive.

(Even Ralph Cowen, Brownsville Navigation District commissioner (and Official Ambassador of Goodwill) seems to hedge his bets on the selection and argues that Ayub is  a Mexican Mark Cuban and an inspirational speaker. Yeah, Ralph, but Cuban wasn't  given a job by his father-in-law. He was his own man. But Cowen said he was invited for a free trip so he went along.)


In 2016, the MAA named Fernando Landeros, the founder of Teleton who had established free clinics and pharmacies to treat disabled children in Mexico and the United States. Interestingly, that year the MAA's was president Ricardo Garza, a pharmacist whose clinics in Los Fresnos and Port Isabel went belly up. Apparently, Landeros' success didn't rub off on Garza.

(And, the MAA's critics point out, most of the actors and actresses the association choices seem to be associated with Televisa, for some reason.)

Or, as the late Mr. Amigo Raul Velasco (also of Televisa) would say: Aun hay mas!

The long answer is: currently Director of Strategic Alliances of  Telefonos de Mexico and CEO of the Telmex Foundation and Director of UNO Noticias.

Tito Mata, who is now doing the heavy lifting for the MAA, said Ayub's selection was a new change in direction for the organization. The efforts of the city should be to attract investors and companies to the city so that our kids won't have to seek employment elsewhere, the mantra goes.

Well, Ayub ain't no Cantiflas (actor), or Miguel Aleman (president), but he's a billionaire's yerno, so we guess that makes him eminently qualified for a free week of  peda, apparently. No MAAmen!