2006 Ambassador Martha Lara

2006 Ambassador Martha Lara

Martha Irene Lara Alatorre is a Mexican diplomatic and politician; she is a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party  (PRI) and native to the state of Chihuahua.

Martha Lara gained notoriety in 1986 when the, then governor of Chihuahua, Fernando Baeza Meléndez named her General Secretary of the State Government, being the first woman to occupy that position. This was a very politically tense moment due to the accusations of electoral fraud against Baeza and the social and political consequences of the entity. She alone managed to propitiate a climate of political stability in the state; she worked in this the full term of Baeza (6 years).

In 1994, she ran for a seat as a senator for Chihuahua for the period that ended in 2000, and she won. In the senate she presided over the International Relations Commission.

Martha Lara has been recognized as one of the most important politicians and diplomatists of Mexico. She is a member of the Exterior Mexican Service since 1971, and in 1994, the then president of Mexico, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, awarded her with the ambassador degree.

In the exterior she has specialized in the relations between Mexico and the United States and knows very well the border relationships between both nations. She has been in charge of the consulates in Laredo, Houston and El Paso, Texas and was the head of the consulate in Seattle, Washington that presided over the states of Oregon and Alaska. She was also in charge of the General Consulate of Mexico in Miami, Florida.

When her time as a senator ended she was named head of the general consulate of Mexico in Los Angeles, California and afterwards she had the same charge in San Antonio, Texas. Both cities have a large number of Mexicans and are the biggest consulates of Mexico.

Martha Lara has also been in charge of the multilateral area of the Exterior Relations Secretary, as General Director for the UN and for the American States Organization.

She is a columnist for the newspaper El Heraldo de Chihuahua, writing about the political life of her state. Her book, Chihuahua, an Experience is about her experiences during the transition to democracy in the state of Chihuahua in 1992, in which she played a very important role.

Today she is in charge of the Industrial Development Secretary in Chihuahua.