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Villaraigosa visits El Salvador
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Villaraigosa plans 2-nation trade mission
L.A. mayor will travel to El Salvador and Mexico to promote investment opportunities and combat transnational gangs.
By Duke Helfand, Times Staff Writer LA Times
April 7, 2007
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced Friday that he would travel to four cities in El Salvador and Mexico on a nine-day mission next month to promote trade and combat transnational gangs.
Villaraigosa plans to start his trip May 1 in San Salvador, where he will be joined by Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton. They will meet with Salvadoran President Tony Saca to discuss ways to confront the rising influence of violent gang members who travel between the two countries.
Villaraigosa also is scheduled to meet with business leaders in the Salvadoran capital to develop investment opportunities for Los Angeles, his office said.
The mayor will travel to Mexico City on May 3 to promote trade, meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and business executives, followed by a visit to Guadalajara.
In both countries, Villaraigosa is expected to urge air carriers to use Ontario International Airport as part of his effort to reduce congestion at Los Angeles International Airport. In Mexico, he also is scheduled to pursue joint environmental initiatives with transportation and port officials.
Several L.A. business leaders and members of the City Council are expected to join Villaraigosa on parts of his trip, although the mayor's office has not released a list of the delegation. Villaraigosa led a similar 16-day trade mission to East Asia last fall, and he is thinking about visiting Europe and Israel later this year.
The mayor is expected to maintain the same hectic pace in El Salvador and Mexico that he set in Asia, where his schedule included half a dozen appearances a day.
But next month's trip will include at least one stop with a personal draw for Villaraigosa. On the final day of the mission, he is expected to visit his ancestral hometown of Leon, northwest of Mexico City.
His maternal grandfather was born in 1884 in Leon, a city in Mexico's geographic center well-known for its leather industry. His grandfather was raised there before moving as a teenager to Los Angeles around the turn of the 20th century, Villaraigosa's office said
