Bad Omen in Chili's Case...

By RICARDO KLEMENT
The Paz Files

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - The entire police department here has been placed on alert following the assassination of eccentric Det. Chili Perez. And now, just when Perez's story seemed to be surfacing, a new wrinkle in the mystery has this bordertown wondering about its neighbor to the south.

For some reason, authorities in Matamoros, Mexico, only a 9-iron from downtown Brownsville, have cleared out the bar where Chili Perez spent his last hours and drank his last Cuba Libre. The Mocambo Bar, located just west of the city's fabled mercado, is shown in photo above. Matamoros cops are not saying anything and the bar's owner has not been identified. In Brownsville, the chief of police said she has lodged a complaint with the Mexican government, noting that she had asked her Matamoros counterpart to secure the scene. Chili Perez was shot in the head as he walked a sidewalk on his way to his car.

Perez, a detective known for his unorthodox manner of solving cases, had vanished roughly two weeks ago after being named lead detective in the murder of local college student Louise Herrera. Police said they have no leads on Perez's killer, but an officer familiar with the case who spoke under anonymity said this, "There was a small, metal German swastika left at the scene of Chili's killing. You make whatever you wish of that."

The German angle may be meaningful in light of the fact that the man Louise Herrera had accused of repeatedly raping her is Paz Files writer Rudolf Von Bulow, a descendant of a senior Third Reich officer. That tidbit, however, is playing lesser fiddle to the clearing of the Mexican bar, action many Brownsville policemen said is a clear sign of a conspiracy between the Mexican government and remnants of the Nazi regime.

Said a gruff-voiced police captain, "If Chili was drinking at that bar, and we think he was, cause he always liked his Cuba Libre at sundown, well, there should've been loads of evidence, like from bar patrons who may have seen something, or maybe broken furniture from a fight, that sort of stuff."

The Mocambo Bar has its own squirrely history. It was long a favorite watering hole of alcohol-fueled Brownsville press types who frequented the joint while hiding from their editors. Indeed, most Brownsville journalists memorized the songs on the bar's dusty, corner jukebox.

"If that's where Chili Perez bought it, and they close the bar forever, well, that's a second tragedy," said sensationalist news blogger Jerry McHale. "I always played B-17 on the jukebox. Yeah, an old Bob Seger tune about night moves. Chili Perez knew the best bars in Matamoros. Hell, he was known as Bad Chili from one side of Mata to the other!"

According to McHale, the tile floor inside the bar made it easier to cumbia.

"I've danced at El Siete Mares and at the 1-2-3 Lounge, but the Mocambo did something to you," the outlaw blogger threw out during a cellphone interview with this reporter. "I was Vicente Fernandez, Jose Jose and Rigo Tovar rolled into one when I was at The Mocambo! In fact, one of the bartenders there, Modesto, a heavyset guy they called El Mendigo, taught me to play acoustic guitar."

Late yesterday, the bar's colorful exterior was being painted over, its yellow-red marquee covered in jet-black paint...

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