Over the years I have been developing an online data set of the various scandals that have plagued El Paso for decades. Much of it is corruption related. As I have written previously, the impetus for my blog is Bob Moore’s unethical practices, which happens to be the most important reason that corruption exists in El Paso. It is because there is no serious investigative reporting, except when it is politically beneficial to the corruptors. As some of you have noticed over the years, the El Paso Times routinely deletes articles, hides them behind paywalls or just does not report on specific community issues. Some of this is the result of the growing pains of a newspaper dealing with the advent of the internet and others are a result of Bob Moore’s unethical practices. Online publications have come and gone, most notably Stanton Street. After Stanton Street was effectively taken over by a Woody Hunt surrogate some of its historical articles have disappeared. I believe the disappeared articles were selectively deleted. The bottom line is that if you Google something chances are that it isn’t there anymore or it is hidden behind a paywall. The El Paso Times continues to experiment with paywalls as some of you have recently noticed.

Because of this there is little “institutional knowledge” from which we can all draw a context from when, when the latest scandals erupt. As I have written previously, corruption does not happen in a vacuum but rather it is a well-orchestrated scheme developed patiently over time. The historical context, which I have dubbed “connecting-the-dots” are very important in order to understand what and how something is happening. For many in the community, the El Paso Children’s Hospital is a current event that the taxpayers were faced with. However, in reality, it is a scheme that was developed since the late 1990’s.

Many individuals were involved or connected to the children’s hospital that without their participation the facts about its unsustainability would have been evident to the community from the onset. As a matter of fact, it took four times to create a feasibility study that was tweaked just right to make it seem like the whole fiasco was feasible. Patience is a key to the schemes and one reason the institutional history is easily manipulated. It took almost ten years to manipulate the feasibility studies to convince the voters to vote on taxing themselves for the economically unfeasible scheme. Throughout the process, individuals like Dolores Briones, a criminal, along with a stable of other people and politicians played a part in pushing the scheme forward. People like Rosemary Castillo, Veronica Escobar, Sam Legate and Jim Valenti were instrumental in implementing the scheme. Many others worked behind the scenes to manipulate the process.

Some members of the community questioned the various schemes but through deflection, manipulation and outright intimidation their voices were silenced. Even today, many in the community are not aware of the many pieces being manipulated to keep the children’s hospital on the taxpayers’ dime. This is because they are being distracted with other community issues. For example, one of the individuals working on reconstituting the children’s board is also facing criminal charges. This individual is also making decisions that are connected to children’s by also being a board member of UMC.

This is important to the scheme because without UMC, the safety net of the taxpayers for the El Paso Children’s Hospital would not exist. I am sure you can clearly see how it is all connected.

I remind you of this today because although I have written many pieces connecting the dots for you, these blog posts only cover a minuscule part of all of it. This is because of limited resources and frankly, intimidation. I must be careful about how I present the information to you because it only takes one erroneous piece of data to lose credibility, or worse, force me to shut down my blog.

There are so many other “rumors” and other details that some are aware of in pieces and others are just too afraid to tell anyone about. It is the intimidation that allows the corruptors to continue raiding the tax monies of the community.

There were many “rumors” over the years about Larry Medina. Some involved corruption and others involved other crimes. The response from the well-to-do was always that Medina was an upstanding citizen. Medina has the awards to prove that point.

Just like there were rumors about Larry Medina, Bob Jones and many others that are now known as criminals, there are rumors today about other “upstanding” citizens and politicos that grace Bob Moore’s headlines today. Some of the allegations are much more than rumors because there exists a body of evidence that shows the corruption. Included among those are police cover ups hidden behind closed door meetings and disappearing police reports.

However, they are not the “smoking guns” that would dispel the misdirection’s that will likely follow the revelations and in many instances the evidence itself could be used to further intimidate the messengers sharing the information with the community.

But each piece of the data that makes it way to me is another piece of the puzzle that ultimately leads to the missing dot. The thing about corruption is that there is always the inconvenient truth that eventually emerges.

There are lot of interconnecting pieces that are missing the connection today but eventually they will come out. I have been receiving bits and pieces that last few months. They take time to confirm and add the missing components to them. Some are explosive and others are ho-hum missing pieces. But they have been keeping me busy.

In the next few weeks I will begin posting what I have found from the information that has been shared with me. I believe some of it will be eye-opening.

However, the evidence is all around you. It just needs a little critical thinking applied to the many things happening around you. Claudia Ordaz and Vince Perez are not operating in a vacuum. Veronica Escobar needed Rosemary Castillo and Sam Legate to force the children’s down your collective throats. Look closely at the Tommy Gonzalez distracting scandal and you will see who it benefits when you apply the corruption filter to it.

Stay tuned, I believe you will be surprised at what comes out in the next few months. The truth always exposes the corruption.