Vytautas Cekanauskas

Their countries no longer exist as independent entities. They have no governments to report to. Yet, three diplomats from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania still wave their flags in Los Angeles with hopes that someday soon they will be representing more than a dream. For almost half a century, Los Angeles has been the only city in the world with honorary consulates for all three Baltic states.

Vytautas Cekanauskas, a former Hughes Aircraft electrical engineer who served as honorary consul general of Lithuania in Los Angeles for more than 30 years, has died. He was 80. Cekanauskas died of cancer Nov. 30 at Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, said his daughter, Vida Bruozis. The Lithuanian-born Cekanauskas was appointed by the chief of the Lithuanian Diplomatic Service in 1977 and served in the uncompensated position until his death. In 1990, during his tenure, the Baltic republic's legislature declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

Vytautas Cekanauskas, a former Hughes Aircraft electrical engineer who served as honorary consul general of Lithuania in Los Angeles for more than 30 years, has died. He was 80. Cekanauskas died of cancer Nov. 30 at Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, said his daughter, Vida Bruozis. The Lithuanian-born Cekanauskas was appointed by the chief of the Lithuanian Diplomatic Service in 1977 and served in the uncompensated position until his death. In 1990, during his tenure, the Baltic republic's legislature declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

Their countries no longer exist as independent entities. They have no governments to report to. Yet, three diplomats from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania still wave their flags in Los Angeles with hopes that someday soon they will be representing more than a dream. For almost half a century, Los Angeles has been the only city in the world with honorary consulates for all three Baltic states.

The ballroom of the Westin South Coast Plaza served as a mini-United Nations on Saturday when more than 40 members of the consular corps dined with about 300 locals at the seventh annual International Protocol Ball. The $150-per-person dinner, with the nonprofit Protocol Foundation of Orange County as hosts, raised an estimated $30,000, according to Margie Gephart, who co-chaired the benefit with Shari Esayian.

Federal agents have arrested a Southern Californian who they believe also is Lithuania's most-wanted man: the onetime head of a Baltic business conglomerate and bank who is accused by authorities there of bilking investors out of $10 million. The FBI said Wednesday that agents had arrested Gintaras Petrikas, 43, after an investigation that extended from Lithuania to Estonia to New Jersey and on to Los Angeles.

Vytautas Cekanauskas, for one, does not understand all the fuss about Sunday's second running of the Los Angeles Marathon. "So they pass by . . . and that's it," said Cekanauskas, Lithuania's honorary consul to Los Angeles, with puzzlement in his voice. "You look at their heels and they're gone."

When, at the age of 30, Leo Anderson was offered the unsalaried job as honorary consul in Los Angeles for the Republic of Latvia 53 years ago, he thought to himself: "Why not? I'll try anything once." Franklin Delano Roosevelt was beginning his first term. Latvia and her sister Baltic republics, Lithuania and Estonia, were enjoying independence after centuries of subjugation. World War II, which would erase the three little nations, was only an angry rumor.