"Where is the love,
You said was mine all mine, till the end of time
Was it just a lie
Where is the love...
By Juan Montoya
At one time, it appeared that Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz was willing to let social media maven Erasmo Castro have a second chance at holding public office.
It got to the point where Saenz appeared with Castro on his campaign postings on social media and openly endorsing him for the board of the Brownsville Independent School District.
But the signs of trouble were there for everyone to see.
When he was running for office, a picture circulated on social media showing Castro fast asleep at a local fast-food restaurant.
And, alas! As time passed and Castro settled into his role as board member, he was rumored to have committed some untoward acts even while he lived the open life of an elected officials.
One of those was an incident involving Castro and another man seen together in a car in the parking lot of a watering hole and reported by people who thought the other male might have been a minor. The report was made to BISD H.R. and got to the ears resident Minerva Peña who – as a former DPS employee – felt obligated to report to police.
The police investigated the incident, looked at the surveillance videos of the business, and decided there were no criminal acts committed.
Then came the complaints from campus administrators, teachers and parents of students that Castro had made it a habit of suddenly appearing on BISD campuses, chatting it up with the students, and then taking selfies cheek to cheek with students, the majority of them boys.
While talk roiled in the district about his peculiar inclinations, Castro was arrested and charged with a DWI Sept. 2 after he was found sitting in the back seat of a car whose front end was damaged and the driver's side front wheel flat as if from some impact, maybe a banquetazo.A group in Brownsville – just like in the case of San Benito Consolidated Independent School District president Michal Vargas – opened an online petition seeking Catro's removal from the BISD board. Before they were done, more than 3,500 people had signed the petition.
Through all this Castro remained bon vivant, calling the petition signers a bunch of sore losers and flaunting his connections which kept him untouched.
By coincidence (or was it?) Saenz was interviewed by the Brownsville Herald about the petition for removal and Saenz provided the reporter with a blueprint on how to remove him citing the little-known Chapter 87 of the Texas Local Government Code dealing with the removal of of a school board member and how it can be initiated by petition to the judge of the state district court where the trustee resides.
Concurrently, the same information was passed on to the dissatisfied SBCISD petitioners. On Sept. 24, both groups showed up at the Cameron County District Clerk's Office with petitions for the removal of both Castro and Vargas. Coincidence? Maybe not.
In the filing, Saenz's brother – activist Mario Saenz – is listed as the the person to be notified to retrieve the summons in the case against Castro.
If the Saenz brothers are acting in tandem in Cameron County politics (and the BISD and SBCISD?), then it is a clear sing that the Saenz-Castro honeymoon is over. And if it is, whatever protection Castro may have flaunted before has dissipated like the early morning mist when Castro was arrested off Morrison Road in the wee hours of the morning.
Saenz is campaigning for his reelection and this may signal his distancing from this chiflado who flaunts his disdain for the law. Who can afford to have friends like this?
Castro can scoff at his fellow board members placing items on the list for his removal or censure, but he knows that only a court can order his removal. With Saenz squarely on the other side in this law enforcement matter, he might want to reconsider his over confidence.
The honeymoon, apparently, is over.
"Where is the love...?