Mexico names consul for new Las Vegas office

Friday, Nov. 9, 2001 | 9:40 a.m.

Mexico has named Berenice Rendon-Talavera consul in Las Vegas.

Rendon-Talavera is a career diplomat who was most recently consul of Mexico in Brownsville, Texas. She will oversee the consulate when it opens in downtown Las Vegas sometime next month.

The consulate will assist the large Mexican population of the Las Vegas Valley and work to advance tourism to Las Vegas as well as commerce between Mexico and Nevada.

"About one in five Nevadans is of Hispanic descent, and about 80 percent of those Hispanics are of Mexican ancestry. Nevada needs new services to provide for this growth, and this announcement brings us so much closer to providing them," said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who together with Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., made the announcement.

The Mexican government announced in May that budget cuts would make opening a consulate here impossible and reversed the decision in August, when two officials visited Las Vegas and searched for sites to open the consulate.

The site will be announced in the coming weeks.

archive