𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗬 𝗜𝗡 𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗪𝗡𝗦𝗩𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗘 𝗗𝗨𝗣𝗘𝗗 𝗕𝗬 𝗧𝗪𝗢 𝗖𝗢𝗡 𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗦; 𝗗𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗟𝗗 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗠𝗣 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗟𝗢𝗦 𝗤𝗨𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗔

                                   

Donald Trump, Carlos Quintanilla

Admittedly, I was flabbergasted that a majority of voters in Cameron County, 52.46%, voted in 2024 for Donald Trump, a man I considered to be a racist and con artist.

Obviously, this overwhelmingly Hispanic voting bloc did not take Trump's remarks seriously as he rode down the Trump Towers escalator in 2015 to announce his original candidacy for President, when he described Mexicans as murderers, rapists, allowing for some to "possibly be good people."  It was a difficult pill to swallow, to realize that, as an elderly Anglo from Seattle, I had more sensitivity to racism than many in Cameron County.

When Trump's obnoxious lie in the 2024 campaign, that Black Haitian immigrants were "eating the cats and dogs" of the residents of Smithfield, Ohio, failed to register among locals, I came to the realization that many Brownsville and Cameron County Hispanics had been totally conned, duped and tricked by a consummate con artist.

If Brownsville and Cameron County were enamored with Trump, New York City, where he'd been operating for many years and was known for massive lies, dishonesty and fraud, was not.

New York prosecutors found that Trump had fraudulently inflated the value of his assets on financial statements by billions of dollars to deceive banks and secure favorable loan terms and insurance coverage.  He'd also falsified business records, issuing false business statements, engaging in insurance fraud and conspiracy.

In February 2024, a New York judge ordered Trump to pay $355M in penalties, with interest totally over $450M, also barring him from doing business in New York for three years.

Trump University was also found to be simply a fraud and the courts ordered Trump to pay back $25M to students who'd paid substantial tuition with false promises.

Trump was also found to have committed election interference in the 2020 election with several documented instances of pressuring officials to change the results, creating alternate, fake slates of electors in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, then pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to count these fake votes.

Trump asked state officials in Georgia to "find" enough votes to overturn the election results there.

Then, there was the January 6 Capitol attack, although many in MAGA claim, despite obvious evidence, that an insurrection attempt did not occur. (That blocking out of the obvious constitutes either blind hero worship or irrational partisanship.)

Again, in New York, we had the hush money case, where Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and hush money payments in the 2016 election.

OK, so much for con artist Trump.

Let's now consider another flim flam man, another con artist, who tricked so many in Brownsville with several attempted scams. Carlos Quintanilla came slithering into town already with a RICO felony conviction under his belt for bilking G. Heileman Brewing Company of $800,000, was $85,000 behind in child support, had bounced $12,000 in hot checks, had numerous liens on his property for non-payment of services and multitudinous lawsuits.

Quintanilla's first attempted con job was to sell the City of Brownsville on a fake airline, Fly Frontera, proposing what was for the city a totally upside down deal.

First of all, the 4 day old "airline" wanted $1,500,000 up front for licensing, fuel, spare parts, etc.  The company had no planes.  Those would have to be rented.

Listen to this: The first 23 plane tickets NOT sold would be guaranteed by the taxpayers at $135 per ticket for the flights to Monterrey and Mexico City, the only flights the "airline" was offering.  That would incentivize the fledgling airline to fly empty planes, using less fuel and Brownsville would pay anyway.  Sounds like a sweetheart deal for someone!

As stated, the quickly thrown together company didn't even have any planes, but then Mayor Pat Ahumada kept repeating himself when some citizens became aware of Quintanilla's multi-paged criminal record:  "Don't blame the messenger!  Carlos Quintanilla has nothing to do with the deal.  He's just the messenger!"  

Former commissioner Charlie Atkinson kept trying to bring the deal back long after it was dead, no doubt because of the lure of calabaza.

Fortunately, the City Commission eventually turned down the deal, but Quintanilla was not through with Brownsville.

The con artist was retained by Ted Parker of Health smart, a firm that had overcharged the Brownsville Independent School District $14,300,000 in insurance premiums.  Quintanilla had already been successful in getting a similar lawsuit by the City of Lubbock, Texas tossed out.

Quintanilla's first order of business was to create  a DefeatCortezZayasPowers PAC, to put in place trustees who who vote to drop the $14,300,000 lawsuit against Healthsmart for overcharges.  Yes, Zayas, Cortez and Powers had to go to accomplish the primary goal, but it was not REALLY about them.  It is known that Juan Montoya, Ben Neece, Pat Lehman and Art Rendon met to work out details of the P.A.C. at Lehman's Chinese motor scooter sales floor on Central Blvd., to be joined by Argelia Miller and Mary S. Rey, who would be named the "officers" of the P.A.C. 

The plan reached fruition when Escobedo, Presas-Garcia, Saavedra and Longoria were elected and  voted to dismiss the lawsuit against Healthsmart much to the delight of Quintanilla and his benefactor, Ted Parker, the former majority owner of Healthsmart.  Quintanilla's work in Lubbock was similar, resulting in a $4,000,000 compromise settlement in their lawsuit for overcharges against Healthsmart.  

For a time, Carlos Quintanilla remained relevant because, along with BISD Trustee Cata Presas-Garcia, he came up with an elaborate plan to "feed the children." The bogus nature of his claims are now part of his bankruptcy proceedings. The entire feeding program was a con, wherein, at best, Quintanilla was table server of food paid for by the people of Texas. Later he tried to sue Texas for failing to pay him $30,000 for being a humanitarian.

                                    

The "Milk Project" with Carlos Quintanilla, unidentified woman, Cata Presas-Garcia and Bruce Carter

His partner in the feeding program was Bruce Carter, a fellow convicted felon. According to court documents Carter and his organization faced a default judgment for $508,387 for non-payment for the milk used by Carter and Quintanilla to feed the children. Quintanilla is not a named a party because, like I said, Quintanilla appears to have been merely a table server for Bruce Carter."

Whether it's Donald Trump, Carlos Quintanilla or some other fast-talking flim flammer, Brownsville seems to tolerate con artists.