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Citizen of Bolivia.
Date of Birth: December 31, 1957.
Married, with three children.
In September 2005, Victor Rico was appointed by the
Secretary General of the OAS as Director of the Department of Democratic
Sustainability and Special Missions of the Secretariat for Political
Affairs.
He studied economics at the Universidad Católica
Boliviana (Bolivian Catholic University) and holds a Master’s degree in
International Relations from the Universidad de Belgrano in Buenos Aires,
Argentina. He also pursued postgraduate studies on the European monetary
system, at The London School of Economics.
His professional positions include serving as Director
General for Integration, Undersecretary for Integration, Deputy Minister of
International Economic Relations, and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in
his native Bolivia. He was later appointed as Consul General-Ambassador in
Santiago, Chile, where he served until 2005.
He served as chief negotiator for his country’s free
trade agreements with MERCOSUR and Mexico, and as Plenipotentiary
Representative on the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) Committee of
Ministers of Foreign Trade. In that capacity he chaired the Andean
policy-making body, another important milestone in his career when he served
as Director General of the Andean Community of Nations in Lima and was
responsible for establishing the common market and for international trade
negotiations.
In the political arena, he was elected Vice President of
the Movimiento Bolivia Libre (Free Bolivia Movement) at the Fourth Regular
Congress of the political party that was founded in 1985.
In academia, he served as professor in the master’s
degree in foreign trade at the Catholic University of Bolivia and has been a
speaker at numerous conferences in OAS member countries as well as other
countries. His articles on issues related to regional integration and
Bolivia’s foreign policy have been published in academic journals and
newspapers. He has also worked as a consultant with the Inter-American
Development Bank (IDB) and the Andean Development Corporation (CAF).
As Director of the Department of Democratic
Sustainability and Special Missions, he led activities in policy analysis
and multiple scenarios; policy/technical execution of initiatives and
special missions set up by the OAS Secretary General in response to member
state requests to intervene in crisis situations; and missions such as the
Mission to Support the Peace Process in Colombia (MAPP/OEA) and the Peace
Fund, among others.
On May 2008, Victor Rico was appointed as the OAS
Secretary General’s Personal Representative on the Good Offices Mission
between Colombia and Ecuador.
On May 1, 2009, he was appointed by the Secretary General
as Secretary for Political Affairs.
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