Consul returns to Mexico City

After just 16 months, Mexican consul Martin Torres has been called back to the foreign ministry in Mexico City.

Torres, who advocates for some 400,000 Mexican nationals living in Utah, Idaho, Montana and western Wyoming, said his successor has not been named. Nor does he know what his next post will be in the Mexican capital. The consulate at 230 W. 400 South has a staff of 16.

After Torres was transferred to the Salt Lake City Mexican Consulate Office in February 2002, he set to work promoting his country's culture and seeking to improve relations between Mexican immigrants and students, and Utahns. He accompanied Gov. Mike Leavitt on a trade mission to Mexico City this past February, during which he helped arrange meetings between the governor and Mexican President Vicente Fox. Just before Leavitt and Torres departed, they and the University of Utah announced the Mexican MBA Fellowship, a full-ride scholarship program that will begin next year. The award will allow a Mexican national to pursue graduate business studies beginning next year at the U.

"We have excess capacity, and having international students in the program is a big enhancement," said Jack Brittain, dean of the David Eccles School of Business.

While driving around Mexico City, Torres also talked with Leavitt about the matricula consular, an identification card issued by the Salt Lake consulate.

"He understood, immediately, how the matricula could be used," Torres said.

The governor has endorsed the matricula consular as a valid ID that might facilitate tracking Mexican migrant workers' children through Utah schools and help families obtain health care and insurance. Already the card is used as one of the forms of ID necessary to apply for a Utah driver's license. Other state governments, including those of Idaho and Colorado, do not recognize the card, however. And in Utah, former state legislator Matt Throckmorton, a Republican from Springville, questions the card's validity.

Meantime, the IDs are easily the most sought-after documents at consulates across the country. Torres' Salt Lake staff provides mobile consulates on many weekends and has issued the cards to Mexican immigrants working in the Logan and St. George areas, as well as in Wyoming and Idaho. People come out in droves to apply for the matricula, which require a birth certificate and another form of official identification.

"The governor said he had a very productive working relationship with Martin. There was trust and friendship," said Leavitt spokeswoman Natalie Gochnour. "(Torres) worked hard for the people of Mexico."