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Bribe culture seeps into South Texas
Houston Chronicle ^ | Dec. 16, 2006 | JAMES PINKERTON

Posted on 12/17/2006 4:35:47 PM PST by SwinneySwitch

19 convicted as Mexican style of corruption moves north of the border

BROWNSVILLE — The bribe has long been a shortcut to wealth and power along the Texas-Mexico border. But these days, it's not just politicians lining their pockets or crooked lawmen taking bags of cash to overlook drug loads.

The culture of bribery is quietly seeping into new realms of government, from school districts to municipal court, experts say.

Proximity to Mexico is at least partly to blame, said Anthony Knopp, a professor who teaches border history at the University of Texas at Brownsville.

"What we're dealing with is a Third World country on the other side of the border where there is a culture of corruption ... corruption will show up here, naturally."

And show up, it has.

Since March 2004, 19 public officials including former Cameron County Sheriff Conrado Cantu, a city manager, several county commissioners, a school superintendent and several school trustees have been convicted of taking kickbacks and bribes.

Some pocketed wads of cash. Others accepted new tires for their cars or extensive remodeling jobs on their homes and businesses. Some even partied with prostitutes. In return, some allegedly awarded lucrative contracts to build or furnish new schools and public buildings. Or they looked the other way as traffickers hauled drugs across the border.

"Bribery is happening down here," said Israel Pacheco, a veteran Texas Ranger in McAllen. "To say it's not happening is to bury your head in the sand."

The way things are done

The bribery culture has existed in Mexico for centuries. There, the bribe is known as la mordida — "the bite." Paying mordidas is often the most efficient — or the only — way of getting things done in Mexico.

Federal officials in the Rio Grande Valley say they began seeing rising numbers of bribery cases several years ago, and formed a task force to target corruption and graft.

Bribery "undermines public confidence in government," said Don DeGabrielle, the U.S. attorney for the federal district that stretches from Houston to Laredo and south to Brownsville.

"When a few abuse their offices ... citizens justifiably wonder then who can they trust in the rest of government," said DeGabrielle, a former FBI agent.

He said the federal task force has led to a number of important arrests and hopes that continued prosecutions will discourage others from taking or offering bribes and kickbacks.

But for some, the temptation is too great.

A Brownsville municipal court clerk was recently sentenced to probation for fixing traffic tickets, undeterred by hundreds of police officers around her at the police station. For a "fee," a city code inspector and a permit clerk allegedly let six used-car lot owners operate in Brownsville without passing building inspections.

The culture of bribery "has filtered down to where it's not just law enforcement," a veteran U.S. agent said on condition of anonymity.

Bribery of lawmen remains a problem, he added.

"We're seeing it a lot more ... and it isn't always cash," he said. "It could be bottles of liquor, it could be a car. Sometimes it's hunting trips."

He said the motivation is always the same — greed.

"It's the money," the agent said. "As long as I've been doing this job."

Alleged entrapment

Some in the Valley blame federal authorities.

The government "creates crime" by using "unsavory" informants to entrap otherwise honest people, said Al Alvarez, a McAllen lawyer who has defended a number of public officials.

As the Valley grows and receives larger shares of state and federal funding, more and more locals get involved in government and some don't know the law, Alvarez said.

"People here don't have the experience in management ... mistakes are made, and some are criminal," Alvarez said.

Bribery cases often end in scenes like one in a Brownsville federal courthouse Nov. 10, when Israel Tamez, a tearful ex-county commissioner, stood before a federal judge.

"I know I did wrong, and I have to pay for it," said Tamez, a resident of Willacy County, one of the state's poorest.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen sentenced Tamez to six months in jail for taking a $10,000 bribe to award a $14.5 million jail contract.

The fallout from another federal investigation was even more tragic in the case of Ed Aparicio, 46, a popular state judge who killed himself last April on the day he announced his resignation. Although the judge was never charged with a crime, FBI agents had searched his home and courthouse chambers, carting off paintings and other potential evidence in a reported bribery investigation.

TV stations in the Valley routinely feature tales of public officials being caught allegedly pocketing bribes in exchange for a range of illegal favors.

In one case last year, the FBI arrested a trustee for the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District and a masonry contractor, accusing them of bribery and extortion.

The McAllen Monitor, applauded the move.

"What's most disturbing isn't the way the two are accused of operating," the paper said in an editorial. "It's that officials at nearly every other school district and municipal government in the Valley conduct business in a similar manner."

In another case, the Cameron County district attorney is investigating how the Brownsville Navigation District spent $21.4 million in taxpayer money during a decade-long, futile effort to build a rail bridge to Mexico.

A private attorney hired by the district concluded $10.5 million was paid to subcontractors in Mexico who did little or no work, including a firm with close ties to Mexican officials.

Elections involved

Bribery has also crept into Valley elections, said Othal Brand Jr., who ran his father's unsuccessful campaign for mayor last year in McAllen.

A political worker offered him "400 votes for $10 apiece, or $4,000," he said.

"It short-circuits the system," Brand said of bribery. "It speeds the process up and cuts red tape. It saves time or money, but without any conscience about the morality, the right or wrong."

Some worry that even more public officials could be compromised as vast amounts of drug money flow across the Texas border.

Laredo police frequently stop cars for speeding as they head through town on their way to Mexico, finding "massive amounts of cash," said Jerry Thompson, a history professor at Texas A&M International University. "One had $400,000 in a bag in the back seat. He didn't even have it in the trunk.

"What scares me is that this drug corruption is going to corrupt the judicial system."

Undeterred, U.S. officials say they're continuing their fight against bribery in the Valley.

"It's not over," said DeGabrielle, the top U.S. prosecutor in Houston. "We are still actively engaged in investigating corruption. ... We haven't washed our hands and declared victory."

james.pinkerton@chron.com


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; Mexico; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: aliens; bribery; corruption; crimaliens; diversity; illegals; immigrantlist; immigrants; immigration; lamordida; mexico; multiculturalism; terrorism; texas; valle
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"....the motivation is always the same — greed."
1 posted on 12/17/2006 4:35:51 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
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To: hispanarepublicana; 2dogjoe; radar101; RamingtonStall; engrpat; HamiltonFan; Draco; TexasCajun; ...

La mordida ping!


2 posted on 12/17/2006 4:39:59 PM PST by SwinneySwitch (Terroristas-beyond your expectations!)
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To: SwinneySwitch; COEXERJ145
Laredo police frequently stop cars for speeding as they head through town on their way to Mexico, finding "massive amounts of cash," said Jerry Thompson, a history professor at Texas A&M International University. "One had $400,000 in a bag in the back seat. He didn't even have it in the trunk.

Question: do you know why it is Texas A&M International University and not Texas A&M at Laredo?

Answer: So the Acronym isn't "TAMALE".

3 posted on 12/17/2006 4:41:35 PM PST by Paleo Conservative (Karl Rove isn't magnificent.)
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To: SwinneySwitch
Who didn't see this coming? You shift a large population of illegals northward, who are used to socialism, and who tolerate a higher level of government corruption as the norm, and this is what you get.

Just wait until our pols reward illegals with amnesty. The next wave will be 40 million, not 20 million.

Enjoy your country's decline, amigos.

4 posted on 12/17/2006 4:42:12 PM PST by FlyVet
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To: SwinneySwitch

"La Mordida." Tsk Tsk Tsk! "Our Diversity Is Our Strength!"


5 posted on 12/17/2006 4:44:15 PM PST by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: FlyVet

ONE HUNDRED forty million... easy.


6 posted on 12/17/2006 4:44:53 PM PST by TLI (ITINERIS IMPENDEO VALHALLA, MMP AZ 2005, TxMMP El Paso Oct+April 2006 TxMMP Laredo - El Paso)
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To: TLI
ONE HUNDRED forty million... easy.

Oh, don't rush things. Let me enjoy my fantasy for awhile.

7 posted on 12/17/2006 4:48:26 PM PST by FlyVet
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To: SwinneySwitch

The government has been pumping billions into the South Texas Valley for years. Mordidas are just a way of life. Ironically, this is the season of giving mordidas as Christmas presents with "meanings". I have seen this for years. Nobody keep it quiet what they are buying their lawyer, banker, etc.


8 posted on 12/17/2006 5:46:16 PM PST by texastoo ("trash the treaties")
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To: FlyVet; gubamyster; All

It all simply boggles the mind.


9 posted on 12/17/2006 5:53:13 PM PST by WatchingInAmazement ("Nothing is more expensive than cheap labor," prof. Vernon Briggs, labor economist Cornell Un.)
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To: SwinneySwitch

I notice no party affiliations are mentioned. Must be Dems...


10 posted on 12/17/2006 6:39:04 PM PST by Antoninus II
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To: AEMILIUS PAULUS
How are we going to explain Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit?

Yep...we've never had a bribe problem in the U.S.

11 posted on 12/17/2006 6:45:12 PM PST by TankerKC (When I think about me, I touch myself.)
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To: SwinneySwitch

Travis McGee is a prophet.


12 posted on 12/17/2006 6:47:07 PM PST by Rb ver. 2.0
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To: TankerKC
Question: "How are we going to explain Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit?"

Answer: Q.E.D.

13 posted on 12/17/2006 7:33:27 PM PST by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: SwinneySwitch

This is the culture our own president wants us to adopt.


14 posted on 12/17/2006 8:15:08 PM PST by janetgreen (SAD FOR AMERICA)
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To: 1_Inch_Group; 2sheep; 2Trievers; 3AngelaD; 3pools; 3rdcanyon; 4Freedom; 4ourprogeny; 7.62 x 51mm; ..

ping


15 posted on 12/17/2006 10:50:24 PM PST by gubamyster
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To: janetgreen

Yeah,but this difference between here and Mexico is that in Mexico there wouldn't have BEEN any convictions!


16 posted on 12/17/2006 10:53:23 PM PST by Riverman94610
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To: SwinneySwitch
Mexicans call it la mordida - literally, "the bite." A few stuffed envelopes full of cash under the table can do wonders in getting a lethargic government bureaucracy to move at the speed of light.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus

17 posted on 12/17/2006 10:54:36 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: Riverman94610
In Mexico, its existed for centuries. Its corrupted even decent people because of the knowledge that if you play by the rules, its going take forever to get anything of consequence done in Mexico. The bureaucracy there is like a sloth. When you offer the right incentives, that seems to spur it to get the job done quickly.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus

18 posted on 12/17/2006 11:05:04 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: FlyVet

There are already 40 million here. The next wave will be 100 million!


19 posted on 12/17/2006 11:19:57 PM PST by TheLion (How about "Comprehensive Immigration Enforcement," for a change)
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To: janetgreen

Sad but true.


20 posted on 12/17/2006 11:20:53 PM PST by TheLion (How about "Comprehensive Immigration Enforcement," for a change)
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