Nevada steps up bid to land Mexican consulate

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, March 27, 2001 | 11:08 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Bureaucratic hassles killed Miguel Ferreira's effort to launch a Mexican dry goods import business in Las Vegas. With no Mexican consulate in Las Vegas to field his questions and process paperwork, the entrepreneur's dream evaporated, he said.

"I just couldn't get reliable sources of information here in town," said Ferreira, a financial analyst for the Riviera hotel-casino. So he abandoned his plan to establish a local warehouse that would import Mexican foodstuffs, such as candy and cereals, to sell to Mexican grocery stores in Las Vegas. "I kind of lost a good business opportunity."

But Ferreira's wish might still come true.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., met Monday with Mexican Ambassador Juan Jose Bremer. Both said Las Vegas could be the next U.S. city to get a Mexican consulate, which could be in place in as early as six months. Mexico has 45 consulates in the United States. Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina and Oregon are among the states that have them.

Reid is one of several Nevada politicians lobbying for a consulate to serve the booming Mexican population in fast-growing Las Vegas. He offered to help Mexico find office space and extended an invitation to new Mexican President Vicente Fox to visit the city.

"It was a very, very good meeting," said Javier Medina, the Mexican minister for political and congressional affairs in the Washington Embassy, who attended the 25-minute exchange. "Sen. Reid is a very good friend of Mexico."

Medina said the Mexican government has placed a high priority in regard to adding a consulate in Las Vegas. Phoenix, which already has one consulate, is among the cities vying for a Mexican outpost, he said. The U.S. State Department must formally approve the consulate, and the Mexican Foreign Ministry must work through "budget constraints" before Mexico opens a Las Vegas operation, Medina said.

A Mexican consulate could help legal immigrants with immigration paperwork, promote business trade and aid troubled tourists. An estimated 300,000 Mexican tourists visit Las Vegas each year.

Several people Monday told a legislative panel that Las Vegas desperately needs a consulate. Rodolfo Romo, 33, a legal working immigrant who is trying to become a citizen, has traveled three times to the Los Angeles consulate this year to keep the citizenship paperwork flowing and to obtain a visa to travel back to Mexico for a funeral.

"This is something that Las Vegas needs right now because we are growing so much," Romo said. "We don't need it a million people later." Romo testified before a Nevada Legislative panel.

Behind the scenes, the effort to locate a Mexican consulate in Las Vegas also carries a shiny prize for Nevada politicians -- gratitude from the increasingly important Hispanic voters.

Nevada's Hispanic population surged 217 percent in 10 years to roughly 394,000, including about 302,000 in Clark County, according to the 2000 Census. A majority are Mexicans, officials say.

About 60,000 Hispanics are registered to vote in Clark County, Hispanics in Politics leader Fernando Romero said.

"In terms of a political prize, (the Mexican consulate) is quite large, particularly when you are dealing with an untapped political source," said Romero.

"Very few politicians pay attention to us because they may consider many of us as undocumented workers or legal residents who have no vote, or registered voters who don't vote."

In some ways Hispanics are still a "sleeping giant," UNLV political science professor Ted Jelen said. But no one disputes that they are growing in number and are more politically savvy -- and politicians know it.

"Democracy is always about numbers -- the constant pursuit of 51 percent," Jelen said. "Obviously, that's something candidates have to attend to."

The Mexican consulate "is an important symbol both to the Hispanic community in Las Vegas and the rest of the West -- that in fact we are a world-class city," Jelen said.

Herrera, who has not taken an active role in landing the consulate but supports it, said Hispanics are already a political force.

"Right now, the Hispanic community can really influence an election in Nevada and in the nation," Herrera said.

Herrera, a Democrat, is seen as a possible future opponent of state Sen. Jon Porter, R-Henderson, who has been a leader in his attempts to bring a consulate to Las Vegas. He said he has suffered unfair criticism for using the effort to court Hispanic voters.

Porter began making inquiries and writing letters at the urging of several constituents, including Romo and Ferreira.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., is collecting local signatures for a letter urging Fox to locate a consulate in Las Vegas. Her staffers have made a series of informal calls to Mexican officials.

"We're just trying to help this process along in any little way that we can. We're not trying to claim credit for it," Berkley spokesman Michael O'Donovan said.

Nevada's Republicans in Congress, Sen. John Ensign and Rep. Jim Gibbons, also support locating a Mexican consulate in Las Vegas, although they have not yet taken an active role in communicating with Mexican officials.