Posted on 11/05/2005 8:15:04 AM PST by tjbravo
The stepfather of 27-year-old Yvette Martinez, who disappeared in Nuevo Laredo a little more than a year ago with her friend, Brenda Cisneros, 23, spoke out against Mayor Elizabeth Flores on national television Thursday.
"I wish I had money so I could sue the mayor for slander," William Slemaker said. "She continues to slap us in the face with her comments."
Slemaker expressed outrage with the mayor after she suggested Wednesday during a live telephone interview on MSNBC's "Live and Direct with Rita Cosby" that most, if not all, Americans missing in Nuevo Laredo had ties, whether directly or indirectly, to the Mexican drug cartels.
"There is a verse in the 'Streets of Laredo' song that says, 'I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong,'" Flores told Cosby during the interview. "And at the very end, it says, 'We all loved our comrade although he's done wrong.' And that is what this community is all about."
"But we know all these folks were not innocent victims. And that's what you have to understand and tell the rest of the country," she said.
Flores' comments stirred outrage.
But this is not the first time Mayor Flores has raised controversy with similar comments made on national television.
She declined to appear on national television a second time to speak opposite an enraged Slemaker.
Flores did, however, stand by her comments off-camera on Thursday and said she has information from law enforcement officials to back up her statements.
Cosby's show focused on border violence, the bloody war among rival drug cartels in Nuevo Laredo and families of Laredo's missing.
The focus, for the most part, was Nuevo Laredo, a city referred to as a war zone that is plagued by terrorists of a different kind - drug lords - who are quickly becoming a national concern.
"We have a number of warring factions, a couple of drug cartels that are fighting for this very lucrative drug route, and they'll do just about anything to maintain control of that," said Chief of Police Agustin Dovalina III, who was also interviewed Wednesday on MSNBC.
But when Cosby paid a visit to the border to see the violence firsthand, the story took a different turn.
The greater concern turned to border violence, its apparent spillover, and what many called a growing and very imminent terrorist-like threat to the U.S. side.
But when families of Laredo's missing, Webb County Sheriff Rick Flores and other law enforcement officials expressed their belief that violence is out of control and spilling over to the sister cities, the mayor disagreed.
Mayor Flores, who has in the past told a national audience that Laredo needs help fighting the escalating border drug war that is threatening to spill over to the U.S. side, denied there was a spillover into the city in the live telecast.
Flores argued that the violence is limited to Nuevo Laredo and has not been seen here.
"I want people to remember that we are talking about another country. Nuevo Laredo is my sister city. We're divided by just a very simple river. But it is another country," Mayor Flores said.
"It is very irresponsible to be saying that there is violence or murder on the border. I am in a border city. There is no violence - additional violence or additional murder in my city," she said.
Cosby interrupted Flores in disbelief and argued that she had met with Border Patrol agents, sheriff's deputies and other law enforcement officials who are on the front lines and that they "definitely beg to differ" with the mayor's comments.
"They say that it's out of control," Cosby said. "They have a huge problem, and they admit it."
Despite Cosby's comments, Flores persisted, arguing that the sheriff said what he said because he needs funding.
When asked about the interview off-camera on Thursday, Flores said she is tired of the negative attention in Laredo when there is no real problem here.
She accused national and local media of "sensationalizing" the growing homicide count in Nuevo Laredo and expressed outrage at the term "border violence" because it brings Laredo into the drug war mix - giving the city a bad name, even though it is an entirely separate entity. She said her only regret was that she was not allowed to speak and explain herself more thoroughly on the show.
Cosby interrupted the mayor on several occasions Wednesday and told the mayor outright that she was in denial.
"You don't even admit there is a problem," Cosby said.
Also discussed Wednesday and Thursday were varying opinions about a corrupt Mexican government, the need for increased federal funding for border safety, more manpower and increased national attention surrounding the issue of border violence and missing Americans in Mexico.
during a live telephone interview on MSNBC's "Live and Direct with Rita Cosby"
I'm not a lawyer, but doesn't part of the requirement of slander be that someone must have heard it?
Owl_Eagle
"You know, I'm going to start thanking
the woman who cleans the restroom in
the building I work in. I'm going to start
thinking of her as a human being"
Los dos Laredos Ping!
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.
The Mayor is right and her LE authorities investigating the crimes in her city are wrong. /Sarcasim
People go with what they know. It would seem that to her mexico and crime go hand in hand.
Flores next job? MS-13 Spokesperson. She is an embarrassment and a fraud. My friends in NL are fully armed all the time and DO NOT cross the border for any reason.
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