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 José
Miguel Insulza was elected OAS Secretary General on May 2, 2005, and
took office on May 26. The 62-year-old Chilean politician has an
accomplished record of public service, most recently serving as his
country’s Minister of the Interior. Insulza, who was elected as
Secretary General for a five-year term, has pledged to strengthen the
Organization’s “political relevance and its capacity for action.”
A lawyer by training – Insulza has a law degree from the University of
Chile, did postgraduate studies at the Latin American Social Sciences
Faculty (FLACSO) and has a master’s in political science from the
University of Michigan – Insulza began his career in academia. Until
1973, he was Professor of Political Theory at the University of Chile
and of Political Science at Chile’s Catholic University. He also served
as Political Advisor to the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
Director of the Diplomatic Academy of Chile.
Following the coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet into power,
Insulza went into exile for 15 years, first in Rome (1974-1980) and
after that in Mexico (1981-1988). In Mexico City, he was a researcher
and then Director of the United States Studies Institute in the Center
for Economic Research and Teaching. He also taught at Mexico’s National
Autonomous University, the Ibero-American University and the Diplomatic
Studies Institute, and was the author of numerous publications.
In 1988, after Chileans voted against Pinochet’s continued rule in a
plebiscite, Insulza returned to his home country and helped to lead a
political movement toward democratic elections in 1990. A member of
Chile’s Socialist Party – part of a moderate coalition of democratic
parties – Insulza has held a number of high-level government posts.
Under the presidency of Patricio Aylwin, Insulza served as Chilean
Ambassador for International Cooperation, Director of Multilateral
Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Vice President
of the International Cooperation Agency.
In March 1994, under the administration of President Eduardo Frei,
Insulza became Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs and in September of
that year was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1999, he became
Minister and Secretary General of the Office of the President, and the
following year he became President Ricardo Lagos’s Minister of the
Interior and Vice President of the Republic. When he left that post in
May 2005, he had served as a government minister for more than a decade,
the longest continuous tenure for a minister in Chilean history.
Born on June 2, 1943, Insulza is married to Georgina Núñez Reyes, whom
he met during his exile in Mexico, and has three children: Francisca,
Javier and Daniel.
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