McALLEN — The city highlighted binational relations Tuesday, honoring Tamaulipas Gov. Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Vaca by presenting him with a key to the city.
During an intimate ceremony held at the McAllen Convention Center, Cabeza de Vaca received the key in celebration of the partnerships between the Mexican state and the American city.
McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos said that since Cabeza de Vaca had been elected in 2016, he had worked to strengthen commerce between the two countries.
He attributed the success of commerce and trade to safety in the Rio Grande Valley and Tamaulipas.
Villalobos specifically pointed to the establishment of a new public safety building in Reynosa that operates a network of 5,000 state-run surveillance cameras throughout the state of Tamaulipas.
The building, itself, is the Center for Coordination, Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence — also known as C5.
“Today, Tamaulipas, out of 32 Mexican states, ranks as one of the safest,” Villalobos said. “As a matter of fact, number eight … number eighth in the country of Mexico.”
However, violence stemming from organized crime persists in the state and it continues to be under a travel advisory by the U.S. Department of State due to crime and kidnapping.
Villalobos also pointed to the city’s partnership with the state of Tamaulipas and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to vaccinate maquiladora workers from Reynosa.
“We wanted commerce and trade to never stop because if that stops, if the maquila workers get sick in Mexico, there’s no work in the United States either,” Villalobos said. “It worked. We were able to implement that with the maquila workers — it was an effort between CBP, the city, the governor’s office — it was amazing and it was a success.”
Cabeza de Vaca praised the mayor and Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez for allowing the maquila workers to travel across the border to receive those vaccines, also stressing that the initiative enabled the flow of commerce to continue.
He invited the city and county officials, as well as the other community leaders in attendance, to keep working together to improve the quality of life of current and future generations.
“Who would have thought that a kid from the Rio Grande Valley … was going to become a governor for the state of Tamaulipas?” Cabeza de Vaca said.
“I’m really proud of that because it gives me the chance and opportunity to send a message to Mexico City, to Washington, so they would understand that good things are happening here in the border,” he added, “that we can work together, that we can make the south of Texas and the north of Tamaulipas a better place to live for our families.”
