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Rueben Pinto Resigns as Comisario, as if that really means anything.

Rueben Pinto Resigns as Comisario, as if that really means anything.

 

Rueben made a big deal about his resignation as Comisario a few weeks ago and the story got picked up by the local media for about 10 seconds, the normal amount of time that people in Guaymas pay attention to the bullshit that goes on here San Carlos. Here is a copy of his letter of resignation.


 

In it he states that he is tired of hearing complaints about problems in San Carlos, no shit really? He states that he has repeatedly asked for help from the Mayor and the Mayor simply blew him off, no shit really? He states how he has no budget. Well of course he has no budget. The budget for San Carlos was already set when he was illegally appointed Comisario. Did he think that they, the city council and mayor would some how magically conjure a new budget that was already approved by the city council just because he was appointed Comisario.

Look the reality is that Reuben took the job of Comisario, just like his predecessor Susarey, because he figured there would be some kind of benefit from being Comisario. What ever that benefit was it no longer exists and thus he resigned.

Not because he has some high altruistic tendencies. The CEA water company meeting at Charly’s Rock was informative on how Ruebens stint as comisarioe might go. Rueben didn’t invite Mexicans to the meeting because he knew they would laugh him out of office if he proposed that they pay extra to fix the sewage system here. But Rueben still lives in a San Carlos dated sometime in the early 90’s where highly altruistic Americans were actually quite happy to pay extra to get projects completed. There are parts of San Carlos that over the last few years have achieved good things with private money. Loma Bella is one of them. They raised 600,000 pesos to pave their road. But it seems that Reuben was incapable of organizing projects like that. but I regress…..

Anyone who thought Rueben Pinto was going to get anything done as Comisario was kidding themselves. The San Carlos scene is actually most likely worse now than when he became Comisario. As far as police stopping locals for bribes go I can almost guarantee that from what I have observed and what people have been telling me it is as bad as ever on the street out there. People are getting extorted left and right by the cops. Don’t think that 100 pesos sticker you bought from the cops is a get out of mordida free card, because it ain’t!!

I remember when Reuben wrote his horribly constructed letter to the governor and posted it on the Viva board. Those of us who have worked for the last several years trying to make San Carlos it’s own municipo knew the letter would go unanswered.

 

What the Citizens Movement here in San Carlos did and is still doing will in the end be far more important for San Carlos. The paper work the local committees have produced will be delivered within a few weeks at most to the state legislature. This paper work has been written up by lawyers. It will petition the state legislature to vote on whether San Carlos can be it’s own Municipio. The state legislature and the Governor will almost certainly blow that letter off as well but that will be their big mistake because then we can if we so desire start a legal battle that will end at the Mexican Supreme Court. It would takes years for this to go through but it is a true legal pathway.

 

It is depressing and unfortunate when you come to the realization that you will fail in something that you have put a great deal of effort into. I.F. Stone said it best when he stated,

 

The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you are going to lose,  because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins. In order for somebody to win an important, major fight 100 years hence, a lot of other people have got to be willing – for the sheer fun and joy of it – to go right ahead and fight, knowing you’re going to lose. You mustn’t feel like a martyr. You’ve got to enjoy it.

–I.F. Stone

I have truly enjoyed the fight. I have enjoyed making those who have continually screwed us over at La Maldita CEA water company uncomfortable. I have to admit that I enjoyed immensely going over to that meeting at Charly’s Rock this winter and telling Rueben he was completely full of shit, as many others did, when he suggested that the Americans who live in San Carlos should pay to fix the problems with raw sewage contaminating the creston beach.  That was right before easter when hundreds of locals would soon come to that little beach to be greeted to a wonderful brown surprise. After all it is the water company’s job to invest and repair local infrastructure here, not local tax paying and bill paying citizens. I mean why should we pay 5 times more for water in San Carlos compared to Guaymas and then have to pay extra over that to fix shit. And literally I mean that when I use the word shit because literally shit comes out of the ground all over the place around here.

My wonderful wife even stepped up to the plate and tried to make a positive change here in San Carlos. She did everything by the book to become a legal and serious candidate for Comisario of San Carlos. She was completely stifled by, Lorenzo Decima just another corrupt politician in a long line of corrupt politicians out of Guaymas. She was not even considered for the post. They threw her paperwork in the trash. Lorenzo as we all know eventually chose an alcoholic dinosaur for the post.

 

But all good things must come to an end and thus I have to admit that in Mexico we simply do not have institutions with sufficient strength to hold government corruption accountable. Think Ayotzinapa on that one! There is one place were someone or some institutions can make a difference. And that would be the environment. Think Zip Line towers at the Estero del Soldado. That was a win for us!! So I will be focusing my time on my non profit WorldsAquarium and issues of conservation. In less than one month our Non Profit will be sponsoring it’s first Sea Lion Disentanglement program up north in Rocky Point. I am hitting people up for donations on that program so click here or the link above this sentence for more info or to donate.

I still plan on blogging and will continue to produce an occasional video or two on local politics and interesting stories but my main focus is gonna be on our 501 C3 non profit WorldsAquarium and the marine environment here. We can do good things I think in the area of conservation.

Politically speaking, and let me be frank here, we are totally screwed unless the people of San Carlos do a couple of things.

  • If San Carlos residents want a bigger portion of their property taxes to stay in San Carlos, so they can be used to improve the town, they will have to stop paying them to the City of Guaymas.

Yes that is right. What the locals have to do, especially the Gringos is to stop paying property taxes to the government. What they can do is pay their taxes into a trust or simply not pay at all. We will explain to the City of Guaymas that no one, especially the gringos, (because Mexicans don’t really pay their property taxes on time if ever), will be paying taxes until there is an agreement between the city and the tax payers that at least, let’s say 50% of the revenue comes back to San Carlos. It needs to be negotiated but if there is one thing that Guaymas understands it is gringo property taxes. They love us gringos because we pay taxes on time. Even if we don’t have to!!

 

What you gringos need to remember is that Mexicans don’t pay their property taxes for many many years. The government can’t take their property because that is agains the Mex. Constitution.

 

Now when a Mexican developer wants to sell the property he has not paid taxes on for 10 years or more he negotiates a sweet heart deal with the city and pays penny’s on the dollar so that he can sell his property legally. The city is happy to get what ever they can from the Mexican property holder. That is the Mexican way. Remember again that us Americans have a trust and the bank doesn’t give a shit if you don’t pay your property taxes. As long as your trust fees are paid the bank is a happy camper.

  • If Mexican residents want San Carlos to be it’s own Municipio they will have to take to the streets.

Yes that is my firm believe at this point. There are simply no institutions in Mexico that are strong enough to uphold citizens rights under article 39 of the Mexican Constitution. There is virtually no legal pathway to San Carlos becoming it’s own city quickly, with out civil protest in the streets.

 

 

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