Mayor defends timing of his trip

When Tuesday’s immigration protests turned violent in MacArthur Park, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was 35,000 feet in the air, flying to El Salvador for the start of a nine-day mission on trade and gangs.

Villaraigosa learned of the disturbance through e-mail when he landed about an hour after it started, then viewed video footage on a BlackBerry while in a holding room at the San Salvador airport.

The mayor said he immediately called Police Chief William J. Bratton and asked him to remain in L.A. to oversee an investigation rather than join the El Salvador delegation as planned. Villaraigosa also viewed video footage on a computer at his hotel before stepping out to comment to reporters Tuesday night.

On Wednesday, he defended his decision to start the mission May 1, the anniversary of the 2006 May Day immigration protests that drew more than 500,000 people to the streets of Los Angeles. He and his aides had considered catching a red-eye to San Salvador after the demonstrations concluded, but decided to leave as scheduled on a midmorning flight, believing the protests would unfold peacefully, as they had last year.

“From the beginning, we knew this was going to be a very small crowd in comparison to last year,” he said in an interview. “We purposely decided not to change this itinerary. When there was a disturbance and clearly a need to investigate this matter with all seriousness, I asked the chief to stay.”

His top aides said the first week of May offered a rare block of time for the mayor to leave town without missing important meetings, including one for the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He is a vice chairman of the board.

The police response in MacArthur Park cast a shadow over the opening leg of his trip to El Salvador and Mexico.

A throng of U.S. and Salvadoran reporters and television crews descended on Villaraigosa the moment he appeared Wednesday morning in the lobby of the Sheraton Presidente Hotel, prodding him for information and updates about the incident.

The first question at a hastily called news conference was not about his afternoon meeting with El Salvadoran President Tony Saca but about his reaction to the use of force in Los Angeles.

“Any time you see images of police officers engaged in a confrontation with individuals of the sort we saw ... you have to be concerned,” he told reporters. “I was concerned enough obviously to ask the chief to stay in Los Angeles. He agreed wholeheartedly and immediately that we [would] elevate the level of this investigation. The press and the public have every right to know exactly what happened.”

Villaraigosa promised an “absolutely transparent” investigation. “Nothing will be hidden from the public,” he said.

Some of the Los Angeles city officials traveling with Villaraigosa said the trouble back home was a continuing distraction, even as the delegation pushed through a relentless schedule of meetings and appearances in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

“I think I’ve asked six times this morning, ‘What’s the latest? What have you heard?’ ” said City Controller Laura Chick, as she peered at a reporter’s laptop computer to glimpse the latest news on the Internet. “There’s this feeling that it’s still unresolved. I think everybody here wants to know who’s at fault. Did we [the police] make a mistake?”

After a shaky morning, Villaraigosa’s day improved as he made the rounds of some of El Salvador’s leading political and business leaders.

He met privately with Saca at the presidential palace and then, seated together for a news conference, announced an agreement between the LAPD and the National Civilian Police of El Salvador to exchange information and two officers from each agency to better coordinate the fight against transnational gangs.

Villaraigosa also met with the head of Taca Airlines and announced an agreement for Latin America’s third-largest air carrier to establish new service between San Salvador and Ontario International Airport, part of the mayor’s plan to regionalize air traffic in the Los Angeles area.

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duke.helfand@latimes.com