The Mexican consulate in San Diego will have new leadership early next year.
Mexico’s Senate unanimously confirmed Wednesday the appointments of Alicia Kerber as the next consul general in San Diego, and Carlos González Gutiérrez — who has held the job since July 2019 — as consul general in Los Angeles.
“Within Mexico’s foreign policy, perhaps no issue occupies a position of greater importance than the attention of our nationals in North America,” said Sen. Héctor Vasconcelos, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, prior to the Senate’s vote in Mexico City.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador proposed both appointments in April. Kerber and González Gutiérrez were sworn in to their respective positions and are expected to take office early next year.
Once both officials receive official notification from the Mexican Foreign Ministry, a period of about 60 days begins for the transfer to be completed.
“It was a treat,” González Gutiérrez said Friday of his time in San Diego. “This is a region where community, business and opinion leaders, and elected officials, are constantly thinking about how to further integrate both sides of the border. I believe there is full awareness that the prosperity of the region depends on the other side.”
González Gutiérrez said that his successor will follow up on border infrastructure projects over which the consulate oversees. Among them, the Mexican side of the Otay Mesa East border crossing and a new treatment plant in San Antonio de los Buenos to address the Tijuana River pollution problem.
“We have made a lot of progress,” he said. “But the challenge is to do our part, which we have always acknowledged, and to invest whatever is necessary for a new plant in San Antonio de los Buenos.”
González Gutiérrez, who has a 36-year career in the Mexican foreign service, said what he will miss the most are the friendships, food and the binational region’s dynamic. “I’m going to miss living with one foot in Mexico and one foot in the U.S., and being able to have the best of both worlds 30 minutes away,” he said.
González Gutiérrez will soon lead what is considered “the largest consular representation Mexico has abroad,” he said. Los Angeles County is home to an estimated 3.6 million people of Mexican descent, 1.6 million of whom were born in Mexico, he said.
He also has a personal connection to his new home. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Southern California, and it was in Los Angeles where he began his career in the Mexican foreign service. It was also were his daughter was born. “Now I have the enormous privilege of returning as consul general,” he said.
Leaders from both sides of the border congratulated González Gutiérrez on his appointment, including Baja California Gov. Marina del Pilar Avila.
Smart Border Coalition’s executive director Joaquín Luken called González Gutiérrez “a great ally” on the issue of border crossings and added that the organization is ready to welcome the new consul.
Kerber, with a 30-year career in the Mexican Foreign Service, earned the rank of ambassador in 2022. Previously, she served as Mexico’s consul general in Houston.
Among her plans are to strengthen programs for migrant women, increase the consulate’s legal service providers, and address the cross-border pollution in the Tijuana River watershed, she said during her hearing at the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee.
