HEY VICTORIA, DO YOU WANT TO BE MY LITTLE SISTER?

By Juan Montoya

Let's try this again.

Today, at 10 a.m., Brownsville and Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, signed a "sister cities" agreement that they say will forge the bonds of brotherhood (or is it sisterhood?) as fellow cities separated only by a river and a few cartel-run cities in between.

The last time Brownsville tried to (re)celebrate being a sister city with neighboring Matamoros on February 2015, things went awry. This time, even though the notice implied that a quorum of the city commission might be present, only Mayor Trey Mendez and commissioner Roy de los Santos were in attendance. (By the way, some have questioned the flag etiquette used in the ceremony. Anyone know?)

Everything was set for a public relations lovefest between the Brownsville and el Municipio de Matamoros to re-tie their bonds back in 2015, but at the last moment, instead of having a repeat, Brownsville city officials then 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. For some reason or other, Brownsville continues to seek sisterhood with foreign cities, bypassing their foreign relations (Relaciones Exteriores) departments, which already have protocols in place for such occasions. We seem to prefer going at it alone.

Ironically, just a day after the city fathers cancelled the sign of friendship in 2015 between then-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 move quickly to implement a secure economic zone along the Texas-Tamaulipas border as the Mexican government is doing on its southern border.

Even more telling, however, is the fact that during that visit to the city by the Interior Secretary, Ms. Salazar was not invited.

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 (or now Trey Mendez, et al) were told that on October 17,1995  a unanimous city commission made up of Mayor Henry Gonzalez and  commissioners Jackie Lockett, Ernie Hernandez, Pete Benavides 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  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. Now comes sister city Cuidad Victoria.