During a two-day visit to Las Vegas, Rosarito Mayor Hugo Torres gave a keynote talk to an international association of educators and promoted a May 6 and 7 binational summit in his city.
Torres also met with Mexican Consul General Mariano Lemus and conducted interviews with several Las Vegas media outlets.
The Rosarito mayor was the keynote luncheon speaker Saturday for the International Academy of Business Disciplines convention, which attracted leading educators from more than 50 countries throughout the world.
He spoke about crisis management and was introduced by Emerson College professor Gregory Payne, whose class has a RediscoveRosarito project, as “one of the leaders around the world who makes a difference.”
The main theme of Torre’s speech was the challenge of informing people in the United States that Rosarito and northern Baja were safe for visitors, when almost all the news about Mexico deals with the government crackdown on violent drug cartels.
Violence in places including Ciudad Juarez --- 600 miles from Baja --- has created the impression that all of Mexico is unsafe, he said.
Despite this incorrect perception, crime in northern Baja in 2009 declined by 10 percent and 21 percent in Rosarito, to a five-year low for the city.
When he decided to run for mayor in 2006, there were corruption problems with the city police department, Torres said: “We had problems not only in perception but in reality.”
But a massive overhaul of the police department, establishment of a tourist police force and other steps have made Rosarito an extremely safe and welcoming city, he said. The main challenge now is in informing people of that.
Torres said he still was trying to determine the most effective methods for doing that, but that being available to media and “always telling the truth” are key factors, as are testimonials from the city’s many expatriate residents.
Torres also met with Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and invited him to be a special guest at the Fifth Binational Mayors’ Summit on May 6 and 7 in Rosarito Beach, co-hosted by Redondo Beach.
Although the summit is primarily for mayors from Baja and Southern California, topics are of regional interest, including the future of the border crossings, economic development, environment and public safety.
Goodman expressed great interest in a workshop on desalination and said he would attend the summit if his schedule permits.
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