LUIS ALMAGRO LEMES

A career diplomat, Almagro was Foreign Minister of Uruguay from 2010 to March 1, 2015, and has extensive regional and international experience. In addition, he was elected Senator in the national elections in Uruguay in October 2014.

His time at the head of Uruguayan diplomacy was characterized by activism in defense of human and civil rights at the regional and global level, the insertion of Uruguay into non-traditional markets, the diversification of these markets, and the strengthening of the image of Uruguay as a democratic, fair, tolerant, and diverse society, with ever increasing rights for more Uruguayans.

As Foreign Minister for President José Mujíca, he defined several emblematic initiatives that put the small South American country on the global map, from receiving former prisoners from Guantanamo, to welcoming dozens of Syrian families who had been victims of the country´s conflict, to building support in the United Nations so that, beginning in 2016, Uruguay will become part of the Security Council.

Moreover, Uruguay has maintained its presence in Haiti to ensure the continuity of the process of reconstruction in the country following the devastating earthquake of 2010.

Knowledgeable about the new regional alignments, Almagro was an active participant in the consolidation of UNASUR and CELAC and as member of the special UNASUR delegation to Venezuela in 2014 he was recognized as an advocate of dialogue between the government and the opposition to stop the violence at that moment.

As a consensus builder in the region and at the same time a driver of new initiatives, during his term at the head of the country´s diplomacy, he achieved the long-desired entry of citrus products into the United States, a key market for the sector, while moving forward with bilateral cooperation programs in areas of scientific-technical innovation.

For its part, Uruguay developed specific programs of cooperation for development with Bolivia, Paraguay, and several African nations in the context of the vision of international solidarity that characterized the term of the former Foreign Minister.

The candidate for Secretary General of the OAS was also Ambassador to China for five years, after occupying senior diplomatic posts in the Foreign Ministry of his country, and in the Embassies of Uruguay in Germany and Iran.

In 2014 Foreign Policy magazine named him a Leading Global Thinker, one of ten decision-makers in the region granted this international distinction.

Almagro, a lawyer by profession, is married and has seven children. In addition to Spanish, he speaks English and French.

JOSÉ MIGUEL INSULZA

A lawyer by profession, Insulza has a law degree from the University of Chile, completed his postgraduate studies at the Latin American Social Sciences Faculty (FLACSO) and has a master’s in political science from the University of Michigan. Until 1973, he was Professor of Political Theory at the University of Chile and of Political Science at Chile’s Catholic University, and he also served as Political Advisor to the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Director of the Diplomatic Academy of Chile.

Insulza became active in politics during his student years and served as Vice President of the Chilean Students Association, President of the Center for Law Students of the University of Chile, and President of the Union of University Federations of Chile.

In the early 1970s, Insulza played an active role in Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity government. Following the coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet into power, he went into exile for 15 years, first in Rome (1974-1980) and later in Mexico (1981-1988). In Mexico City, he served as Director of the United States Studies Institute in the Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE). He also taught at Mexico's National Autonomous University, the Ibero-American University, and the Diplomatic Studies Institute.

Insulza was able to return to Chile in early 1988 and joined the Coalition of Parties for Democracy, the coalition that won the plebiscite against the Pinochet regime in October of that year and that has been victorious in all democratic elections held in the country since 1990. A member of the Socialist Party, he has held numerous high-level posts in several Coalition governments.

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, Insulza joined the administration of President Eduardo Frei, serving as first as Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs and later as Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1999, he became Minister Secretary General of the Presidency, and was appointed the following year to be President Ricardo Lagos’s Minister of the Interior and Vice President of the Republic. When Insulza 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 and has three children: Francisca, Javier and Daniel.

LUIGI R. EINAUDI

From 1995 to 1998, Ambassador Einaudi was the United States Special Envoy in the peace talks that led to a comprehensive settlement by Ecuador and Peru of their centuries-old territorial conflict. In December 1999, when tensions over maritime boundaries broke out between Honduras and Nicaragua, Einaudi was called on to help promote dialogue. As Special Representative of the OAS Secretary General, he successfully brokered a separation of the countries’ military forces pending a decision on the boundary dispute by the International Court of Justice.

Ambassador Einaudi retired from the U.S. Department of State in July 1997 after serving on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff (1974-1977 and 1993-1997), as Director of Policy Planning for the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs (1977-89), and as U.S. Ambassador to the OAS (1989-1993). In his quarter century with the State Department, he played a major role in articulating policy and consulting with almost every Latin American nation, as well as Japan, most Western European nations and NATO, on a range of matters including the Panama Canal treaties, human rights issues, the Caribbean Basin Initiative and the Central American and Haitian crises Ambassador Einaudi received awards from Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George Bush, as well as Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright. He also received the 1997 Frasure Award for peace-making and seven other medal citations from the Departments of State and Defense. In February 1999 the presidents of Ecuador and Peru personally decorated Ambassador Einaudi for his role in bringing peace to their countries.

Luigi Einaudi earned A.B. (1957) and Ph.D. (1966) degrees at Harvard University. From 1964 to 1974, he conducted research in the social sciences at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California. He has taught at Harvard, Wesleyan, UCLA and Georgetown universities, and lectured widely in the United States, Latin America and Europe. He has written dozens of articles and monographs and was the principal author of Beyond Cuba, Latin America Takes Charge of Its Future (1974). He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is on the board of educational and non-profit institutions in the United States and Italy.

PRESIDENT MIGUEL ANGEL RODRÍGUEZ

Rodríguez has an extensive background in government, business and academia, and wide-ranging experience in international affairs. As President of Costa Rica, from 1998 to 2002, he focused on improving economic growth, lowering inflation and expanding trade. A champion of human rights, he created a cabinet-level ministry on the status of women and spearheaded the Responsible Paternity Law to ensure paternal recognition and support for children born out of wedlock. As a legislator, he promoted a law that opened the door for indigenous people to obtain official identification documents and thus gain full access to their rights as citizens.

Rodríguez earned undergraduate degrees in economics and law from the Universidad de Costa Rica, as well as master’s and doctorate degrees in economics from the University of California at Berkeley. In the late 1960s, he was Minister of National Planning and then Minister of the Presidency, while also serving on the board of Costa Rica’s Central Bank. In the 1970s and 1980s he worked in the private sector, heading a cattle company called Grupo Ganadero Internacional, S.A. and taking a leadership role in national business organizations.

In 1990, Rodríguez began his first term to elected office, serving as Congressman of the Legislative Assembly until 1993 and President of that legislative body in 1991 and 1992. A longtime leader of the Christian Democratic Party in his own country, he was President of the Christian Democrat Organization of America (ODCA) from 1995 to 1998, after having served as a Vice President of that organization in the early 1990s.

Over the last four decades, Rodríguez has also stayed active in the academic field, teaching at the Universidad de Costa Rica and the Universidad Autónoma de Centro América, and publishing numerous books and articles on economic, social and political issues. From 2002 to 2004, he was the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Visiting Professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He has also served in recent years on the board of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and on the advisory council of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, and chaired the Global Advisory Group of Manatt Jones Global Strategies, a consulting firm.

Rodríguez was born in San José, Costa Rica, on January 9, 1940. He and his wife, Lorena Clare Facio de Rodríguez, have three children and three grandchildren.

CÉSAR GAVIRIA

Through his strategy for a “New Vision of the OAS,” César Gaviria has fostered profound institutional changes that have reinvigorated the inter-American agenda and prepared the Organization to meet the challenges the region faces today. Administrative reforms have made it possible for the OAS to expand its activities, despite the scarcity of resources, and to strengthen key programs. The adoption of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, in 2001, established the region’s unequivocal commitment to democracy and human rights. The National Democratic Institute paid tribute to Secretary General Gaviria’s leadership and the Organization’s growing role in strengthening democratic values when it presented the OAS with the 2002 W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award.

During Gaviria’s tenure, the OAS has also intensified efforts to improve hemispheric security and combat terrorism, drugs and corruption. It has become a key player in the Summit of the Americas process, and now serves as its technical secretariat and institutional memory. The Organization has also advanced the concept of integral solidarity and has reformed its technical cooperation programs.

Gaviria has been instrumental in defusing numerous crises in the region, most recently the tensions in Venezuela. From November 2002 to May 2003, he undertook an unprecedented effort to facilitate talks between the Venezuelan government and representatives of the opposition. The negotiations formally ended with an agreement between the two sides that opens the door for the “peaceful, democratic, electoral and constitutional” outcome the international community had sought.

César Gaviria began his career at age 23, immediately after obtaining his degree in Economics from Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, when he was elected councilman in his hometown of Pereira. Four years later, he became mayor. He was also professor of Principles of Economics and Public Finance at Universidad de los Andes during 1971 and also taught a seminar level course on Colombian Economics between 1972 and 1974 at the Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira.

In 1974 he was elected to Colombia’s House of Representatives. He rose to the top position in the House in 1983. Between 1983 and 1986 Gaviria was also economic columnist for El Tiempo, his country’s leading newspaper, and director of La Tarde, a regional paper based in his hometown.

In 1986 Gaviria became co-chair of the Colombian Liberal Party, a position he held during the successful presidential campaign of the party’s candidate, Virgilio Barco.

Mr. Gaviria served in the Barco administration first as Minister of Finance and later as Minister of the Interior. He played a critical role in beginning peace negotiations with the leftist guerrilla group known as “M-19.” In early 1989, he left the government to manage the presidential campaign of Senator Luis Carlos Galán. Following the brutal murder of Senator Galán by drug traffickers, the Liberal Party chose César Gaviria as its candidate. He was elected President of Colombia in May 1990.

During his four-year term (1990-94) he enacted policies to strengthen democracy, promote peace and reintegrate armed rebels into civilian life. He also carried out a process of constitutional and institutional change, focusing on strengthening the judiciary branch and increasing human rights protection. In 1991, through a plebiscite and elected constitutional assembly, Colombia drafted a new, more democratic constitution. President Gaviria also undertook economic reforms to modernize and enhance Colombia’s competitiveness in the world market. He presided over the signing of free trade agreements between the members of the “Group of Three” (Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela) and between Colombia and CARICOM, and initiated the revitalization of the Andean Pact.

JOÃO CLEMENTE BAENA SOARES

Ambassador João Clemente Baena Soares assumed office as Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) on June 20,1984. An experienced diplomat from Brazil, he was Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of his country prior to being elected unanimously in March of 1984 by the General Assembly of the OAS to the position of Secretary General.

In accordance with the Charter of the OAS, he was elected for a period of five years with the possibility of being re-elected for an additional five-year period. In 1988, the OAS General Assembly elected him to a second five-year period of office.

João Clemente Baena Soares brough to the OAS his valuable experience of more than 31 years of diplomatic service in his country. He occupied various important positions while serving his country; all of which were critical to Brazilian foreign policy. He has a deep and broad academic formation in the legal field.

Between 1997 and 2006, he was a member of the United Nations International Law Commission. On 4 November 2003 U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed him to sit on the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change. On 1 September 2006 he was appointed to the United Nations Human Rights Council 's High-Level Commission of Inquiry charged with probing allegations that Israel systematically targeted and killed Lebanese civilians during the 2006 War.

Ambassador Baena Soares was decorated by many of the governments from different regions of the world in recognition of his contributions to international relations.

ALEJANDRO ORFILA

He was born in Mendoza, Argentina, on March 9 of 1925. After high school he start his superior education at the University de Buenos Aires, in which he studied Law Right. Later he took courses of political sciences in Stanford University, California, and Foreign Commerce in the Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana.

In 1946 he was Secretary of the Embassy in the External Relations Ministry in Buenos Aires. From 1946 to 1947 he was sent under the same position to Moscow.

He flew from Moscow to Warsaw, in where he served as Consul until 1948, and then he went to San Francisco, California and New Orleans with the same position between 1949 and 1950.

Between 1951 and 1952 Dr. Orfila was Secretary in the Argentine Embassy in Washington. Later he leaves that position to direct the firm José Orfila, Ltd., in Mendoza.

Between 1953 and 1958, he went back to United States to take the direction of the OAS’s Public Relations Department for a period of five years. In that position he was Advisor in several inter–American conferences and in some cases he was OAS’s delegate to several special meetings in different places of the hemisphere.

Sooner he was designated Plenipotentiary Minister to the Argentine Embassy in Washington; he remained in that position until 1960. That year he traveled to Japan as argentine Ambassador until he decide to work in their own business in 1962.

For eleven years he was consultant in international finances and economic matters fields.

In november of 1973 he was named United States Ambassador.

Ambassador Orfila has been awarded by the governments of Spain, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, the Vatican, Thailand, Japan and Greece.

GALO PLAZA

His father, General Leónidas Plaza Gutiérrez, was President of Ecuador from 1901 to 1905 and from 1912 to 1916. In the interim between his terms as President, General Plaza served as Minister in the United States and while in that country, his son Galo Plaza was born in New York City on February 17, 1906.

General Plaza was married to Avelina Lasso de Plaza, a direct descendant of Captain Diego de Sandoval, one of the founders of Quito in 1534. Mrs. Avelina Lasso was also the great-granddaughter of two prominent figures of the independence movement in Ecuador, Francisco Javier Ascásubi and Juan Salinas.

Galo Plaza completed his primary and high school studies in Quito, and he studied agriculture and economics at the University of California (Berkeley) and the University of Maryland. In 1929, he began his studies in diplomacy at the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and it was in this city that he began his diplomatic career as an attaché at the Embassy of Ecuador.

When his father died in 1932, Mr. Plaza returned to Ecuador and dedicated himself to managing the family’s ranch. He used modern growing techniques and imported Holstein cattle. Many of his innovations were later adopted throughout Ecuador.

Galo Plaza’s interest in modern agricultural methods and civic issues attracted the attention of political leaders. In 1937, he was elected member of the Municipal Council of Quito and was elected Mayor the following year. He remained in that position until 1939, when he was named Ambassador of Ecuador to the United States. As this appointment occurred during World War II, he was active in addressing inter-American problems. He was a member of Ecuador’s delegation to the Inter-American Conference on Problems of War and Peace, held in Mexico City in 1945, at which the bases of the Rio Treaty and the OAS Charter were established.

In the same year he attended the San Francisco Conference at which he signed the Charter of the United Nations.

In 1946, he resigned as Ambassador in order to return to Ecuador and be part of the creation of a political party, the National Democratic Civic Movement. With the support of this party, he launched his candidacy for Senator of Pichincha province, in which Quito is located, and he won. The following year he was elected President of the Republic.

In the four years of Mr. Galo Plaza’s constitutional term of office, Ecuador enjoyed peak economic prosperity, political stability, and great respect for civil liberties. According to the Constitution of Ecuador, the President could not be reelected immediately, so Mr. Galo Plaza handed over power to his successor, who was elected in free elections. At the end of his term and because of his contribution to freedom of information, the Inter-American Press Association paid special recognition to him for his contribution to freedom of information.

During his presidency, Mr. Plaza went on official visits to Colombia, the United States, Mexico, and Venezuela. After his presidential term, he dedicated most of his time to agriculture and cattle ranching.

In 1958, he presided over the Special Committee of the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA) which, at its meetings in Chile, Mexico City, and other locations, established the basis for a Latin American common market. The United Nations once again requested his services for several special missions.

In 1958, he chaired the United Nations Observation Group in Lebanon (UNOGIL), and in 1960 he served on the U.N. committee in charge of studying problems related to the evacuation of Belgian bases established though treaties in the Congo.

In May 1964, he was invited to Cyprus by the Secretary General of the United Nations, U Thant, as his special representative to try to contain the explosive political situation in that country. In September 1964, he was named mediator and was placed in charge of the negotiation of a long-term agreement between Turkey, Greece, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. Mr. Plaza ended his mission on December 31, 1965, after presenting a well-praised final report.

On February 13, 1968, he was elected Secretary General of the Organization of American States, succeeding Dr. José Antonio Mora of Uruguay. He was elected for a 10-year term, but he announced that he would only hold that position for five years in acknowledgement of the new provisions of the OAS Charter.

In his long career Mr. Plaza was honored by various countries and recognized by many universities for his work on behalf of world peace and for his contributions to agriculture. The United States, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Venezuela are among those countries that have lauded him.

He received honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Maryland, Columbia University, Washington University in Saint Louis, Harvard University, the University of New Mexico, Williams College, and the New School for Social Research. In 1967, he received the Elise and Walter A. Haas International Award from the University of California (Berkeley).

Because of his contribution to agriculture, in 1968 his portrait was placed in the Agricultural Hall of Fame in Chicago during a special ceremony attended by more than 200 cattle industry leaders in the United States.

Mr. Plaza was designated “Key Man of the Americas” on October 14, 1969, by the Avenue of the Americas Association in New York. In 1955, he was honored with the annual award of the Americas Foundation.

Mr. Plaza married Ms. Rosario Pallares Zaldumbide on March 7, 1933. He had one son, Galo, and five daughters, Elisa, Luz, Rosario, Marcela, and Margarita. He loved horses, bullfights, horse racing, and men’s and women’s soccer.

JOSE A. MORA

When he returned to the Uruguayan Capital in 1931, he was designated Chief of the International Organization Division of the Ministry of External Relations. Thus he began his long and valuable experience in International Conferences. In 1935 he went to the Commercial Conference which was celebrated in Buenos Aires and was the General Secretary of the Uruguayan Delegation. In 1936 he went to the Inter American Conference for Peace Consolidation which was celebrated also in Buenos Aires and in 1938 was temporal Representative of the Nations League in its headquarter in Geneva.

He was Advisor of the Uruguayan Delegation in three External Relations Minister Conferences: The Panama, celebrated in 1939; Havana, in 1940 and the Rio de Janeiro in 1942. That last year he was named Plenipotentiary Minister in Bolivia and he served that position until 1944, year in which he assisted to the Inter-American Commission of Development Conference celebrated in New York while he was the President of the Uruguayan Delegation.

When he went back to Montevideo in 1945, he was named Director of the International Organization Division, Congresses and Conferences of the External Relations Ministry, which was extended. He took place as Advisor of the Uruguayan Delegation in the Inter-American Conference of War and Peace Problems in Mexico and in the United Nations Conference in San Francisco. He also was a Delegate of the Uruguayan Supplementary in Washington in the Jurists Committee, which wrote up the International Justice Court statute.

In 1946, Dr. Mora was named Plenipotentiary Minister in the United States. Moreover he represented his country in the International Sanitary Conference of United Nations (New York); in the second part of the First General Assembly of the United Nations in 1947 and, in the Inter-American Conference for the Continent Security and Peace Maintenance, which was celebrated in Rio de Janeiro, in which the Inter-American Reciprocal Assistance Treaty was subscribed.

Dr. Mora was Plenipotentiary Delegated to the Ninth American International Conference celebrated in Bogota in 1948 and Uruguayan Representative in the Organization of American States Council from which he was its first Vice– President.

In 1950 he was President of the Consulting Body for the Caribbean Situation Commission and in 1931 he was Plenipotentiary Delegate to the Peace Conference with Japan, which was celebrated in San Francisco. In March 26, 1951 he was named Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Uruguay to United States and in the same year he represented Uruguay in the fourth External Relations Consult Ministers Meeting of the American Republics, celebrated in Washington.

In 1954 he was President of the Uruguayan Delegation to the Tenth Inter-American Conference, celebrated in Caracas from November 1954 to November of 1955. He was the President of the Organization of American States Council.

When he was the President of the Council named in the last paragraph, Dr. Mora was praised by his Ambassadors Colleges for the effort in favor to the continental armony and because of his ability to direct the activities of that Body. The arrangement between Costa Rica and Nicaragua disputes was a particular motive for which Dr. Mora was praised.

In October 8, 1955, the Inter-American Association for Freedom and Democracy gave him a condecoration because of his valuable contribution to Democracy.

In January 16, 1956, Dr. Mora was elected General Secretary of the Organization of American States to complete the unfinished exercise of Dr Carlos Dávila, of Chile, that passed away in October of 1955. In May of 1958, the Rollins College (Winter Park, Florida) conferred him the honorary title of Doctor in Humanities.

In June of 1959, he received honorary degrees of Doctor in Civil Law and Doctor in Law from the Universities of Pittsburgh and Colgate, respectively. Dr. Mora married Miss. Susana Nery and had two daughters, Gladys and Susana, and a son Juan Antonio.

CARLOS DÁVILA

Dr. Dávila began his newspaper career with “El Mercurio”, of Santiago in 1914. He left that paper in 1917 to establish “La Nación” of the same city, which he directed until 1927. In 1932, he founded the Chilean magazine, “Hoy”.

From 1927 to 1931, Dr. Dávila served as Chilean Ambassador to the United States, and in 1932 he was for several months provisional President of Chile. Later he came to the United States and was associated for many years with the Editors’ Press Service, and acted as correspondent for numerous important South American newspapers. In 1941 he received the Maria Moors Cabot Award from Columbia University for his distinguished journalistic contribution in the service of the Americas. A prolific writer, Dr. Dávila is the author of “We of the Americas”, published in 1949 and has contributed many analytical studies on politics and economics to leading American publications.

In 1933, Dr. Dávila was visiting Professor of International Law at the University of North Carolina, under the auspices of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He served on the Council of UNRRA from 1943 to 1946, and was Chilean Representative to the Inter-American Financial and Economic Advisory Committee in 1940. In the same year, he became the author of the “Dávila plan”, which created the Inter-American Development Commission. In 1946, he served as a member of the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

Dr. Dávila’s first wife, señora Herminia Arrate de Dávila, died in Chile in 1941, and Dr. Dávila returned to the United States with their two daughters, Luz and Paz. In 1950, he remarried, this time to Mrs. Frances Adams Moore of Massachusetts, a widow with a daughter, “Dolly”, by her first husband.

ALBERTO LLERAS CAMARGO

He started working in the media in the newspaper "La República" which was founded by the Doctor Alfonso Villegas Restrepo; later he collaborated in "El Tiempo" and "El Espectador" Bogota’s newspapers. He traveled to Argentina in 1926 and there he worked in "La Nación" of Buenos Aires, also in newspapers and magazines from that city.

He traveled to Europe in 1929 as special correspondent of "El Mundo" of Buenos Aires, to the International Exposition of Sevilla, Spain. He came back to Bogota in 1929 and rejoined the newspaper "El Tiempo", as Editing Chief. He was the director of "La Tarde", that was edited in Bogota for a period of about a year.

He was again Editing Chief of "El Tiempo" in charged of the editorial section until 1934. In 1938 he founded "El Liberal" which was the newspaper that he directed until 1942. In 1929 he was named General Secretary of the Liberal Party; he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1931/1933 and was the first Liberal President of the corporation after 45 years of conservative domination.

He was part of the Colombian Delegation to the Montevideo Conference in 1934; He also was Secretary of the Embassy that accompanied Dr. Alfonso López, elected President, in his official visit to United States in 1934, he was General Secretary of the Presidency of the Republic when the López administration began in 1934; He was Government Minister from 1935 to 1938; he directed the Ministry of National Education for a short period.

Dr. Lleras Camargo was delegated to the Inter- American Conference of Buenos Aires, in which he proposed the foundation of the American Nations League; He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1941, in which he was its first president; the National Convention elected him member of the Liberal National Direction; He was elected in 1943 senator and once again member of the Liberal National Direction; in April of 1943 he was designed Ambassador of Colombia to the United States Government.

In October of 1943 he was named once again Government Minister and he reminded in that position until January of 1945. Later he was designated External Relations Minister until august 7 of 1945, in that date he began his function as the Commander Chief because of the Titular’s Commander Chief resignation.

He was Chief of the Colombians Delegations to the Chapultepec Conference (February of 1945) and to the United Nations Conference celebrated in San Francisco from April to June of 1945. He was named Doctor honoris causa of Cauca University (Popayan, Colombia) and the California University in United States too. He married General’s Arturo Puga daughter Miss. Berta Puga; General Puga was ex Chief Commander of Chile. Dr. Lleras Camargo had three daughters and one son: Consuelo, Ximena, Marcela, and Alberto.

LEO STANTON ROWE

Other positions: Delegate to the 1st. Pan-American Scientific Congress, (1908-9); General Secretary of the Pan-American Financial Conference (1915); in charge of the State Department (1915); General Director of the Pan-American Union (1920). Author of many informs, magazine articles and monographs, some of them: "Federal System on the Argentine Republic" (1920), "The United States and Puerto Rico" (1904), "Problems of City Government (1908). He died the 5 of December of 1946.

Extracted from: The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography.
New York, James T. White and Co., 1922. Vol.18. 316 p.

AMBASSADOR NESTOR MENDEZ

Furthermore, during his tenure as Permanent Representative of Belize to the OAS, Ambassador Mendez chaired several Councils and Committees of the organization including the Permanent Council, the Committee on Hemispheric Security, the Special Committee for Migration Issues, and the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI) where he focused on matters related to innovation, competitiveness, and supporting micro, small and medium sized enterprises as engines for economic growth and development.

Ambassador Mendez previously held diplomatic posts at the High Commission for Belize in London, United Kingdom where he served as Counsellor and at the Embassy of Belize in Guatemala where served as First Secretary. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Policy and Practice from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., a Graduate Level Certificate in Diplomatic Studies from Oxford University in Oxford, United Kingdom, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University College of Belize in Belize City, Belize. He is fluent in English and Spanish. He is married and has two children.

ALBERT R. RAMDIN

The Surinamese diplomat has had a distinguished career in public service at the national and international level, serving before his election to the OAS as Ambassador at Large and Special Adviser to the Government of the Republic of Suriname on Western Hemispheric Affairs.

In Suriname, Ramdin served as Senior Adviser to the Minister of Trade and Industry, where he was intensively involved in restructuring the ministry and implementing an industrial development program. In the mid-1990s, he worked for two years in the private sector before returning to public service when he was appointed Adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Finance.

In 1997, Ramdin became his country's Permanent Representative to the OAS, and two years later, he was also appointed to serve concurrently as Suriname's non-resident Ambassador to Costa Rica. As Ambassador to the OAS, Ramdin chaired the Permanent Council (January-March 1998) and the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (1999), and coordinated the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Ambassadors Caucus during Suriname's chairmanship of the subregional group.

In 1999, he joined the CARICOM Secretariat as Assistant Secretary-General for Foreign and Community Relations, where he was responsible for coordinating CARICOM's foreign policy and strengthening relations among its member states. He played a leading role in increasing cooperation with the Central American Integration System and the Andean Community. Ramdin coordinated CARICOM's technical preparations for the Third Summit of the Americas and was instrumental in ensuring that key issues were included in its Declaration and Plan of Action.

In 2001, Ramdin was named Adviser to the OAS Secretary General, with special attention to the Caribbean. He continued his close engagement with the situation in Haiti, dealt with issues of priority for small states, monitored the hemispheric trade agenda and briefed the General Secretariat on Caribbean concerns.

Born in Suriname on February 27, 1958, Ramdin received his education in Paramaribo and in The Netherlands, at the University of Amsterdam and the Free University, where he studied geography of developing countries with a specialization in social and economic problems of smaller economies in Latin America and the Caribbean. Ramdin is married to Charmaine Baksh, a national of Trinidad and Tobago, and they have two children, Kareana Amy and Anu Xsitaaz.

LUIGI EINAUDI

As Assistant Secretary General, Ambassador Einaudi served as Secretary to the political bodies and carried out diplomatic efforts to reduce tensions in several countries. He helped broker talks related to the maritime and territorial differences in Central America – between Belize and Guatemala, as well as Honduras and Nicaragua – and has supported demarcation of the El Salvador-Honduras border. He has also worked tirelessly to find a solution to the political crisis in Haiti.

From 1995 to 1998, Ambassador Einaudi was the United States Special Envoy in the peace talks that led to a comprehensive settlement by Ecuador and Peru of their centuries-old territorial conflict. In December 1999, when tensions over maritime boundaries broke out between Honduras and Nicaragua, Einaudi was called on to help promote dialogue. As Special Representative of the OAS Secretary General, he successfully brokered a separation of the countries’ military forces pending a decision on the boundary dispute by the International Court of Justice.

Ambassador Einaudi retired from the U.S. Department of State in July 1997 after serving on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff (1974-1977 and 1993-1997), as Director of Policy Planning for the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs (1977-89), and as U.S. Ambassador to the OAS (1989-1993). In his quarter century with the State Department, he played a major role in articulating policy and consulting with almost every Latin American nation, as well as Japan, most Western European nations and NATO, on a range of matters including the Panama Canal treaties, human rights issues, the Caribbean Basin Initiative and the Central American and Haitian crises Ambassador Einaudi received awards from Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George Bush, as well as Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright. He also received the 1997 Frasure Award for peace-making and seven other medal citations from the Departments of State and Defense. In February 1999 the presidents of Ecuador and Peru personally decorated Ambassador Einaudi for his role in bringing peace to their countries.

Luigi Einaudi earned A.B. (1957) and Ph.D. (1966) degrees at Harvard University. From 1964 to 1974, he conducted research in the social sciences at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California. He has taught at Harvard, Wesleyan, UCLA and Georgetown universities, and lectured widely in the United States, Latin America and Europe. He has written dozens of articles and monographs and was the principal author of Beyond Cuba, Latin America Takes Charge of Its Future (1974). He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is on the board of educational and non-profit institutions in the United States and Italy.

CHRISTOPHER THOMAS

VAL T. McCOMIE

On September 1, 1968 he was appointed Barbados’ Ambassador to Washington a position he held for six years until he was assigned to Venezuela from 1974 to 1977. Ambassador McComie had a great belief in the value of cross-cultural communications and his work within the OAS was inspirational for all Caribbean nations. Ambassador McComie passed away on May 9th 2007.

JORGE LUIS ZELAYA CORONADO

JIMMY CARTER

ADOLFO PÉREZ ESQUIVEL

"To create this new society, we must present outstretched and friendly hands, without hatred and rancor, even as we show great determination and never waver in the defense of truth and justice. Because we know that we cannot sow seeds with clenched fists. To sow we must open our hands."

Nobel peace prize acceptance speech English | Spanish

¹ "Adolfo Pérez Esquivel - Biography". Nobelprize.org. 2 Jun 2011 http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1980/esquivel-bio.html

CORDELL HULL

“There is no greater responsibility resting upon peoples and governments everywhere than to make sure that enduring peace will this time - at long last - be established and maintained”.

• Some Results of the Montevideo Conference English | Spanish
• Peace & War Address by Cordell Hull to Brown University English
• Economic Barriers to Peace English

¹ Hinton, Harold B., Cordell Hull: A Biography, with a Foreword by Sumner Welles. London and New York, Hurst & Blackett, 1942.

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

Born on January 15th 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, Martin Luther King Jr. was a clergyman, an advocate of non-violent resistance and one of the most important civil rights activists and leaders of the African American Civil Rights movement. King is also the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

After graduating from high school at age fifteen, Dr. King received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1948 from Morehouse College. He was awarded a Bachelor of Divinity from the Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania in 1951. He was also awarded a fellowship with which he enrolled for graduate studies at Boston University and received his doctorate degree in 1955.

In 1953, King married Coretta Scott, with whom he would have four children. A year later, at the age of twenty five, King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Dr. King became involved in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, as a member of its executive committee. In 1955, he became the spokesman for the Montgomery bus boycott to protest racial segregation on buses which would last 382 days. During this time, Dr. King was harassed, arrested, and his house was bombed. However, as result of the boycott, on December 21st 1956, the Supreme Court ruled bus segregation laws to be unconstitutional and King’s status as an African American Civil rights leader was cemented.

Dr. King was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference which was dedicated to the civil rights movement. The organization was founded on Dr. King’s influences, namely Christianity and the non-violent teachings of Mahatma Gandhi.¹ In this capacity, Dr. King would spend over a decade traveling and giving speeches to protest injustice and human rights abuses while preaching non-violent resistance.

In 1963, Dr. King led non-violent protest in Birmingham, Alabama, which at the time was described as the most segregated city in America.² The protest inspired his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”. The protest and the brutality of the police force were captured on the news and caused an international uproar which led to groundbreaking civil rights legislation.

Later that year, Dr. King led the March for Jobs and Freedom, also known as the “March on Washington”, uniting over 250,000 people at the National Mall, where he delivered his famous “I have a Dream” speech. The March on Washington contributed to Congress passing the landmark Civil Rights Act in 1964.

The Voting Rights act passed by Congress in 1965 was a direct result of the Selma to Montgomery March for Voting Rights led by Dr. King.³

In 1963, Dr. King was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. In 1964, at the age of 35, Martin Luther King Jr. became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, for his work to end racial discrimination and injustice and his promotion of non-violence. In 1965, the American Jewish Liberties Committee awarded him the American Liberties Medallion for his "exceptional advancement of the principles of human liberty". King was also awarded the Pacem in Terris Award.4

On April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, he was assassinated. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Jimmy Carter in 1977 and the Congressional Gild Medal in 2004. In 1986, Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established as U.S. federal holiday. A memorial to Dr. King was built on the tidal basin of the National Mall in Washington DC, making Dr. King the only non-US President to have a memorial in the Mall of the US capitol.

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.”

¹ "Martin Luther King - Biography". Nobelprize.org. 28 Nov 2011 http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html

² http://www.thekingcenter.org/history/about-dr-king/

³ Ibid

4 www.wikipedia.org

CARLOS SAAVEDRA LAMAS

Born in Buenos Aires on November 1st 1978, Carlos Saavedra Lamas was an Argentine academic and politician and the first Latin American recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Saavedra Lamas devoted much of his academic career to the fields of labor legislation in Argentina and International law. For the former, he advocated the adoption of a universally recognized doctrine on the treatment of labor. In addition to editing several treatises on the matter, Saavedra Lamas drafted legislation on labor in Argentina and supported the founding of the International Labor Organization in 1919. In 1928, he led the Argentine delegation and presided over the International Labor Conference in Geneva.

In the field of international law, he published La Crise de la codification et de la doctrine argentine de droit international (1931); and spearheaded legislation on issues such as arbitration, asylum, colonization and peaceful resolution of disputes.

He began his political career in 1906 when he was appointed Director of Public Credit and later on Secretary-General for the Municipality of Buenos Aires. In 1908 he served as Member of Parliament for two successive terms, during which years he proposed legislation on varied issues such as coastal water rights, irrigation, colonization, immigration and government finances. His heart was in foreign policy and he led the efforts aimed at rescuing Argentina’s arbitration treaty with Italy that risked collapsing in 1907-08. He was the de facto unofficial adviser to Parliament and to the Foreign Office for all matters related to proposed foreign treaties.

In 1915 he served as Minister of Justice and Education. During his mandate he introduced and implemented ambitious reforms in the educational arena among which a curriculum for vocational and technical training of workers.

In 1932 he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and held this post for the next six years. His actions in bringing about the end of war between Paraguay and Argentina (“the Chaco war” 1932-1935) resonated both at the local and international levels. In 1932, in Washington, he initiated the August 3rd declaration whereby all American states went on record stating that they refused to recognize any change in the territorial make up of the hemisphere brought about by force. In October 1933 he was successful in drawing up a Treaty of Non Aggression and Conciliation which was signed and ratified by six South American countries. Two months later, at the Seventh International Conference of American States in Montevideo, the same treaty was signed and accepted by all American countries. In 1934 he presented to the League of Nations the South American Antiwar Pact, which was signed by eleven countries. In 1935, he orchestrated the mediation of six neutral South American countries to bring about the end of hostilities between Paraguay and Bolivia. This string of successes earned him acclaim and appreciation and he was elected President of the Assembly of the League of Nations in 1936 and was instrumental in resolving many diplomatic issues emerging in South America in the 30s. He was credited with arranging the return of Argentina to the League of Nations after a 13-year absence and from that point onwards he represented Argentina in every important meeting. He died of brain hemorrhage in 1959.¹

“Peace cannot be obtained merely by the artificial efforts of the ministries of foreign affairs if the latter limit their purposes to the coordination of interests, transitory and accidental, in the field of politics. To achieve this objective it is necessary to bear in mind the economic and the social order. It was not in vain that the Treaty of Versailles formulated the principle that social peace must be erected on the basis of greater social justice. That contest, sometimes forgotten, must impel us to forever give to collective humanity greater security, greater comfort, and a more assured livelihood.”

¹ www.nobelprize.org

ALFONSO GARCÍA ROBLES

García Robles was the driving force behind the 1967 Treaty of Tlatelolco (Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean), a role for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982. The treaty stipulates that the signatories agree to prohibit and prevent the "testing, use, manufacture, production or acquisition by any means whatsoever of any nuclear weapons" and the "receipt, storage, installation, deployment and any form of possession of any nuclear weapons." Two additional Protocols were made to the Treaty: Protocol I obligates non-American countries with territories in the region to the terms of the treaty. Protocol II requires declared nuclear weapons states of the world to agree not to take any action that could undermine the nuclear-free status of the hemisphere. In addition, the treaty provides for a comprehensive control and verification mechanism, overseen by the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL).

García Robles was a strong advocate of world disarmament. He represented his country during the negotiations in Geneva and in 1978, and he played a pivotal role successful adoption of what is known as the "Final Document" of that session of the Assembly.

¹ From Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 1982, Editor Wilhelm Odelberg, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 1983

OSCAR ARIAS SÁNCHEZ

From left to right: José Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the OAS and Oscar Arias Sánchez, President of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Laureate; at the launch of the Inter-American Peace Forum on September 23, 2008

He served his first term as President of Costa Rica from 1986-90. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for his work towards the signing of the Esquipulas II Accords, which evolved from a ten-point plan he had submitted and which brought an end to the military conflicts that had been raging in Central America. The Esquipulas II plan defined a number of measures to promote political reconciliation within each of the Central American States, an end to hostilities, democratization of their domestic political processes, and negotiations on arms control and assistance to refugees. The Agreement appealed to outside states to cease assisting the irregular and insurgent forces and to prevent the use of their territories to support aggression against other states. Arias was also a proponent of closer Central American regional cooperation and integration and promoted the creation of the Central American Parliament.¹

After leaving office, Arias devoted himself to working with the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress, the organization he founded with the Nobel Prize award money. In 2006, Arias was elected to a second term as President, becoming the first Nobel Laureate in history to do so after winning the prize. He served until 2010. Dr. Arias is a staunch advocate for human development through education. At the 5th Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago in April 2009, he called for increased resources to be directed towards education in Latin America. He also stressed the importance of investment in research and infrastructure in Costa Rica. In 2009, he served as mediator during the Honduran constitutional crisis and called for the return of ousted President Zelaya to power.

Dr. Arias continues to call for a comprehensive Arms Trade Treaty, free trade, and the “Costa Rica Consensus” a call for a foreign policy approach that would redirect arms spending towards social investment such as education, health and environmental issues. He is also a recipient of the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism and a trustee of Economists for Peace and Security. In 2003, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Criminal Court’s Trust Fund for Victims. ²

¹ G. Pope Atkins Encyclopedia of the Inter-American System (Westport, Connecticut and London: Greenwood Press, 1997) 172-173.
² From Nobel Lectures, Peace 1981-1990, Editor-in-Charge Tore Frängsmyr, Editor Irwin Abrams, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1997

RIGOBERTA MENCHÚ TUM

Born on January 9th 1959 in Laj Chimel, El Quiche, Guatemala, Rigoberta Menchu Tum is an indigenous Guatemalan, raised in the Quiche branch of the Mayan culture. Menchú has dedicated her life to publicizing the plight of Guatemala's indigenous peoples during and after the Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996), and to promoting indigenous rights in the country. Since early in her youth, Menchú was involved with social reform activities and the womens’ rights movement. These activities angered the influential circles and led to the imprisonment and torture of her father, mother and brother. In 1981, Rigoberta Menchú had to go into hiding in Guatemala, and then flee to Mexico. Menchú began to organize resistance activities to protest human rights abuses in Guatemala and to highlight the plight of Indian peasant people. In 1982, she helped found the joint opposition body, The United Representation of the Guatemalan Opposition (RUOG). She received the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize and Prince of Asturias Award in 1998. She is the author of the autobiographical work, Crossing Borders. Menchú is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. She has also become a figure in indigenous political parties and ran for President of Guatemala in 2007.¹

“I think that nonviolence is one way of saying that there are other ways to solve problems, not only through weapons and war. Nonviolence also means the recognition that the person on one side of the trench and the person on the other side of the trench are both human beings, with the same faculties. At some point they have to begin to understand one another”.²

¹ http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1992/tum-bio.html
² http://www.betterworldheroes.com/pages-m/menchu-quotes.htm

JOHN BARRETT

In 1907, he was appointed at the first Director General of the Bureau of American Republics, a position he would hold for the next fourteen years. He also founded the Pan-American Society of the United States, was Secretary General of 1916’s Pan-American Scientific Congress and presided over the Pan-American Commercial Congresses of 1911 and 1919. He received many honors throughout his life, including honorary doctorates from Tulane University, the University of Southern California, the National University of Colombia, and the National University of Panama. Both Venezuela and China awarded him state decorations. He died of Pneumonia on 1938.¹

“Pan Americanism which means the development of a solidarity of permanent interest, an interdependence of commerce, finance and trade, an exchange of ideas and knowledge, a unity of political and economic-purposes, a common preparedness and defense that will make Pan America and Pan Americanism forever the chief factors in world progress, world civilization and world peace.”

¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Barrett_%28diplomat%29

JOHN G. BLAINE

JOHN F KENNEDY

ELIHU ROOT

SOLANGE PIERRE

Solange Pierre, also known as Sonia Pierre, is a leading grassroots activist and human rights advocate in the Dominican Republic who has dedicated her life to fighting antihaitiansmo which is discrimination against individuals from Haiti or Dominicans of Haitian origin.

Pierre was born and raised in the Dominican Republic from Haitian parents. In the 1980s, she founded the Movimiento de Mujeres de Dominico-Hatianas-Movement of Dominican Women of Haitian Descent (MUDHA), a grassroots organization that mainly works in bateyes, communities located on former sugarcane plantations in the Dominican Republic that are home mostly to people of Haitian heritage.

MUDHA works to fight both gender discrimination and racism in the Dominican Republic by promoting labor rights, healthcare and legal education to empower women and provide them with access to basic social services. It has built schools and health clinics in bateyes, and established day care and adult education programs. MUDHA has led a campaign to provide Dominican-born children of Haitian descent with the Dominican birth certificates to which they are entitled. Without them, children are excluded from the education system.¹

MUDHA has also been very active in the tent communities set up in the aftermath of the January 12th earthquake in Haiti, working to fight violence against women and children. In an area called Leogane, MUDHA has been working with the police to file complaints of violence and provides them with gas money so they can patrol the camps. Women are given whistles to use when they are in danger, a program that has led to the capture to 17 aggressors. Pierre reports that since these measures have been put in place, violence in Leogane has decreased by 80 percent.²

Pierre has received several awards and honors. In 2006, she and MUDHA were nominated for the UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education. In 2003, Pierre won Amnesty International’s Human Rights Ginetta Sagan Fund Award. In 2006, former US Senator Edward Kennedy presented her with the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy said of her "With certitude, I can affirm that Sonia is one of the most selfless, courageous and compassionate human beings of my generation. Sonia is very near the top of my list of heroines."³ The United States Department of State presented her with the 2010 International Women of Courage Award.

¹ www.amnestyusa.org
² http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/work/emergencies/ongoing/haitiearthquake/haitinewsarchives/soniapierre/
³ Miga, Andrew. “Activist Sonia Pierre Recieves RFK Award.” The Washington Post 17 Nov. 2006.

LILIAN GONÇALVES- HO KANG YOU

In 1973 she became a Partner of the law firm Gonçalves -Ho Kang You. In February 1980, soldiers led by Desi Bouterse staged a coup. Gonçalves and her husband spoke out against the coup and the abuses that ensued. Her brother, Milton Ho Kang You was murdered and the military was suspected of being responsible. On December 7th 1982 her husband was taken from his home and executed by the Bouterse regime. Gonçalves continued to receive threats and in 1983, she decided to move to the Netherlands as she feared for the safety of her daughter. She became socially active in the National Bureau Against Racism and worked with development organizations. From 1994-2000, she became Vice President of the Equal Treatment Commission. In 2006, she was vice-chair of the Independent Post and Telecommunications Authority, OPTA, a Dutch government agency. In 2001, she became chair of Amnesty International in the Netherlands and worked to raise awareness of human rights abuses, especially women’s rights. In 2006, she was appointed chair of the International Executive Committee of Amnesty International in London. In 2009, Gonçalves became a member of the State Council on Special Duty and later that year was appointed to the Committee on State Constitution. She is President of the Prince Claus Fund, Commissioner of the Concert Hall, Director of Stichting De Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam and the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, and sits on several art boards. She is the President of the Foundation for Legal Cooperation for Suriname and the Netherlands. She is a member of Advisory Council of the Giving Back Foundation, which helps improve access to education for disadvantaged youth. Gonçalves is on the board of the Radboud University and a member of the Advisory Board of the Dutch Bar Association. She was also the first president of the Caribbean Arts Group, an independent working group within the Society of Dutch Literature. Gonçalves is the recipient of the 2005 Amnesty International award. In March 2008, she received the Aletta Jacobs prize from the University of Gronigen for her commitment to human rights.¹

¹ From www.wikipedia.org

JEAN CLAUDE BAJEAUX

¹ From www.wikipedia.org