THE FIGHT IS ON FOR THE HEART AND SOUL OF CAMERON COUNTY

By Juan Montoya
Various Sources

After two candidate forums that basically turned into debates, the gloves have come off between Democratic Party contenders for Cameron County Judge, incumbent Eddie Treviño and challenger Steve Guerra, formerly a commissioner with the Port of Brownsville.

Neither candidate garnered the required 50 percent plus 1 vote to win in the primary and are contending in a runoff.

Unlike the first forum, where Treviño countered Guerra's facile statements on flooding and drainage in the county's rural areas, the use of autonomous districts, etc., Guerra came out on the offense making unfounded allegations of Treviño's supposed corruption, serving special interests, and his association with political supporters in various business dealings.

He criticized the incumbent for voting for raises for elected officials and county workers, for his law firm acting as local legal counsel to Tenaska and the Brownsville Public Utilities Board and earning a $1.2 million fee over five years, and for supporting the construction of an arena that was turned down by county voters. He also said Trevino was responsible for steering the award of the county jails' commissary to an associate.

And while Guerra took personal credit for advances at the port, he blamed Treviño for his actions on Boca Chica Beach, the LNG tax exemption, and what he called the lack of infrastructure.

"Doesn't he realize that it takes a majority of the county commissioners  just like it takes a majority at the port to pass any initiative," said a city commissioner watching the forum. "You've got to count to three at the county, and four in other boards of the different districts. In fact, I think Treviño is the one only county commissioner who voted against giving LNGs the tax exemption they wanted. It's not like one hand clapping. You have to build consensus."

Guerra's campaign has relied heavily on nebulous social media platforms to level unsubstantiated charges of corruption, money laundering, and kickbacks for his "suspicious support" to all SpaceX abuses in Boca Chica Beach." 

In a pro-Guerra post, La Pulga Online – among others – charged, without citing any source or authority, a "corruption alert" that Treviño was considering dropping out of the runoff election because of an alleged "federal investigation."

And they charged – again, without any proof – that a construction company that SpaceX hired to build workers' housing at Starbase was actually owned by "the corrupt county judge" Treviño using a "shady local bail bondsman (Juan "Junior" Andrade") as a "front man" in the "corruption-money laundering scheme. The contract will be a kickback to Treviño for his suspicious support to all SpaceX abuses at Boca Chica Beach."

And even though all these charges have been denied by both men, the anonymous posts disappear and later reappeared in other anonymous posts on social media and repeated across the world wide web.

Andrade is the owner of a bail bond company and his family rose from poverty setting up business in the Cameron Park Colonia and strongly denied the allegations in the social page posts.

"My family and I have worked all our lives to better ourselves," said Andrade. "I challenge anyone to prove that I have ever done anything illegal. Over the years I have supported the judge and consider him a personal friend. If I was Guerra and/or his supporters, I would be very careful on what they allege. I happen to know several port officials that have confirmed that federal agents have been making inquiries out there about the way they do business."

Andrade first won a contract for the jails' commissary under the late Sheriff Omar Lucio and when Cameron County Sheriff Manny Trevino let it out for bids, emerged as the winner. County Judge Trevino has nothing to do with the awarding of the commissary contract. In fact, most people don't know that the sheriff is not obligated to bid it out under Texas law but can award it at his discretion.

For his part, Guerra has ben plagued by his relationship with various figures associated with organized crime in Matamoros where his family has several businesses. His detractors point to the fact that his grandfather – since deceased – was Juan N. Guerra, the founder of the Gulf Cartel, and that he is related to Juan  Garcia Abrego. A famous picture featuring both men at the older man's restaurant in Matamoros surfaced on social media after Guerra announced his candidacy for public office.

Privately, and publicly, Guerra has denied any involvement with the crime cartels, but critics often point to his blood lines as an indication of where his familial loyalties lie. The old saying that you can't chose your in-laws seems to apply in spades.

Likewise, the surname Cardenas is long associated with both political and commercial influence in Matamoros and Tamaulipas, including a state governor and mayor of Matamoros. One of their kin, Pedro Cardenas, is now a city commissioner and local businessman with extensive ties in Brownsville's sister city. 

Unfortunately, the name Cardenas has also gained notoriety when Osiel Cardenas, a former Mexican drug lord and the former top leader of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas in Matamoros, was sentenced to a  25-year sentence for drug offenses, money laundering and threatening to assault and murder a federal agent.

He served for some time in the federal corrections system and in December 2024 was transferred back to Mexico after serving time in the U.S., and is now held in Mexico's Altiplano maximum-security prison.

It doesn't help their image when some of the 12 recently arrested defendants who were implicated in the control of commerce through extortion at Los Indios Bridge of transmigrantes bear their name.

Among the 12 defendants is a woman named Guerra, a cousin of the port commissioner. As we said earlier, you can't pick your in-laws.

Locals' fears that the cartels have infiltrated South Texas grow as disclosures in the media detail the massive amounts of fuel that have ben "laundered" and sold as petroleum byproducts on the Mexican side of the border. Guerra was linked to such a scheme operating under Warrior Fuel Traders LLC that did business with a Mexican fuel dealer identified by Mexican federal investigators as running such an operation. The Texas Secretary of State has since  forfeited that LLC. https://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2026/05/the-proof-is-in-huachicol-lawsuit-for.html

“Fuel theft, colloquially referred to in Mexico as huachicol, is the most significant non-drug revenue source for Mexican cartels and other illicit actors,” according to information published by the U.S. Treasury Department.

That leads local residents to ask: Have the cartels found a home on the U.S. side, including, the city, school district, the Port of Brownsville, and now, perhaps, Cameron County? 

To quote a local blogger "As 'Los Juniors' fatten their bank accounts in Brownsville...they are presently seeking control of the different political entities from whose spigots flow millions. And from their Mexican roots they recognize that Brownsville politicians, public servants and community leaders can be bought for a pittance."

In a recent mailout, Treviño hammered on this subject warning about the county being allowed into the hands of "questionable entrepreneurs and associates." 

Early voting in the runoff starts Monday, May 18 and ends Friday, May 22. Election Day is Tuesday, May 26