Mexican President Zedillo to Visit L.A. in Late May
LOS ANGELES — Saluting a new era in California-Mexico relations, Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S. said Wednesday that President Ernesto Zedillo will visit the state in late May, marking the first trip here by a Mexican president in eight years.
The trip is a direct response to Gov. Gray Davis’ watershed visit to Mexico in February, which ended with the two leaders pledging to meet again in California this spring.
The governor’s tour epitomized the warmer cross-border relations that have followed the stormy tenure of former Gov. Pete Wilson, who was regularly assailed in Mexico as anti-Latino.
“There is a new political ambience in California, and a growing business interaction between California and Mexico,” Ambassador Jesus Reyes Heroles said as he concluded a three-day California visit.
Much of the ambassador’s visit focused on coordinating the president’s upcoming trip, which he said will probably last three days.
Details are still being worked out, but Zedillo will certainly meet with Gov. Davis, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante and such members of the Legislature as Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles), the ambassador said. The agenda will also include meetings with representatives of Mexican immigrant communities, as well as sessions with business owners.
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