In late January, the mayor of South Tucson, two South Tucson council members and two other Tucsonans joined an international meeting in Colombia.
Mayor Roxanna Valenzuela even got to meet the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, a couple of weeks before Petro, a leftist in frequent conflict with Pres. Trump, traveled to Washington D.C. and made nice with Trump.
The trip to Colombia was to a conference held by Progressive International, a group formed in 2020, that aims "to unite, organize and mobilize the world’s progressive forces," according to its mission statement.
The meeting in Colombia was an emergency gathering to respond to the attacks Trump ordered on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and other acts of aggression in Latin America. The attending delegation included elected senators, party leaders, cabinet members and other Latin American officials.
The description of the delegation on Progressive International's web site refers to Valenzuela as the "the mayor of Tucson, Arizona."
South Tucson Mayor Roxana Valenzuela met Colombian Pres. Gustavo Petro during a conference in Bogota in late January. The mayor ofwas one of five people from Tucson and South Tucson, including two council members of the smaller city, to visit Colombia for a meeting of the group Progressive International.
Valenzuela was joined by two South Tucson City Council members, Pablo Robles and Dulce Jimenez, as well as two Tucson activists, Enrique Olivares and Glenda Avalos.
"When I saw what happened in Venezuela, I felt a lot of angst," Valenzuela said. "And there's this group that I was connected with, Progressive International, and I saw they were going to Colombia, and I was like, 'Colombia is next, right?' "
In early January, Trump threatened military action against Colombia.
"I was invited as the mayor of South Tucson, but I was just more than anything there to learn and connect with other people that have a similar interest in helping forge better relationships internationally, especially with Latin America," Valenzuela said after the South Tucson council meeting Tuesday evening.
What connected these representatives of a city of 5,000 people to this global organization was Bill De Blasio, the former mayor of New York City, who has been in a relationship with Valenzuela since last year. De Blasio was a delegate to the conference and one of the speakers.
Who paid for it? The travelers themselves, Valenzuela said.
"The city did not incur any expenses related to the trip to Colombia," said South Tucson City Manager Veronica Moreno.
Robles said he was motivated to go by experiencing the "historical events in our current day."
"A lot of times, in the face of all of this happening, it feels like we're helpless, even being in the positions that we're in. And it's not necessarily that way," Robles said. "So it was good to just, you know, get the advice, get the perspective, and honestly, on a personal note, it was really cool to see that we weren't received as like, persona non grata."
That is, for being from the United States at this time.
Jimenez added "Being there, we learned about things that were happening in different Latin American countries, like political injustices that we weren't aware of before. So, this is like an opportunity for us to learn and bring that back, bring that call to action back home with us."
Tucson's share of RTA 'rehabilitation'
A mistake in Wednesday's Star left readers with the false impression that the city of Tucson would get 1,000 times less in road rehabilitation than it actually would under RTA Next.
That transportation and taxing plan, enshrined in propositions 418 and 419, includes at least $177.6 million for "rehabilitation" of artery and collector streets. Of that $177.6 million, the city would receive $139.6 million.
This money would pay for some large roads to be rebuilt from curb to curb. The city of Tucson has come up with 20 priority stretches of roads that could be recipients of this treatment, but it's unclear how many of those projects this money would pay for if the plan passes.
Invites to the Noem show
Federal dignitaries' visits to the border at Nogales are a common occurrence, often including meetings with federal, state and local officials to discuss how things are going, or to resolve some problem.
On Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited Nogales in a different kind of engagement. It was essentially, a celebration of the degree of border control establilshed under Trump.
"More than 200 border agents, port officers, ICE agents and military members, including 40 Coast Guard officers from California" attended the event, the Star's Emily Bregel reported.
Members of Congress often attend these events, but weren't there, as they're in session in Washington D.C. Not to mention, the one who represents Nogales, Rep. Adelita Grijalva, a Tucson Democrat, has called repeatedly for Noem to resign or be fired for the "out of control" behavior of ICE agents.
And few local officials were invited. The one that stood out: Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels was there with Noem in Nogales, while the local sheriff, David Hathaway of Santa Cruz County, was not.
Dannels is a Republican who has frequently emphasized the idea of a border in crisis, while Hathaway is a Democrat who has repeatedly challenged the idea of a border in chaos.
TUSD board candidates
The Tucson Unified School District's board has two seats up for election this year, with the terms of board members Jennifer Eckstrom and Val Romero ending in December.
Both Eckstrom and Romero have filed to run for re-election. Three additional candidates have filed to run for those two seats. They are Lucas Verdugo, a Tucson native and property manager, Tre'Davon Rhodes, a Tucson native and University of Arizona student, and Pilar Ruiz, a previous campaign manager for TUSD candidates and candidate herself for the Pima Community College board.
