An employee for the San Diego Mexican Consulate says he was taken out of context by protesters who say he wants to reconquer Southern California.

Members of the Utah Minuteman Project opted to join in a call for a boycott of tourism to Mexico after seeing a clip on YouTube in which Alberto Lozano of the San Diego consulate said "this has been and will be Mexico."

The consulate did not initially respond to an interview request last week.

However, on Monday, Lozano sent an e-mail to the Deseret Morning News saying he was referring to the Mexican consulate and not Southern California last month.

Lozano said the protesters had been "yelling ... even threatening us with shutting down the Mexican Consulate." That's when Lozano said he told the protesters the consulate is Mexican territory.

"I did not made ever any reference to the U.S. territory!" Lozano said in the e-mail, "but the Mexican Consulate's location or physical space."