Former Chilean Foreign Minister appointed head of UN mission in Haiti
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has named former Chilean Foreign Minister Juan Gabriel Valdés as his Special Representative to Haiti and head of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Caribbean country (MINUSTAH), a UN spokesperson announced today.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has named former Chilean Foreign Minister Juan Gabriel Valdés as his Special Representative to Haiti and head of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Caribbean country (MINUSTAH), a UN spokesperson announced today.
Mr. Valdés, a human rights activist, was Chile's Ambassador to the UN from May 2000 until June 2003 and the country's Foreign Minister from June 1999 to March 2000.
Among other diplomatic postings, he served as Chile's Ambassador to Spain from 1990 to 1994. In addition, he was a consultant to the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Chile in 1994.
Exiled during Chile's military rule, he worked at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, with ousted President Salvador Allende's Foreign Minister, Orlando Letelier, who was assassinated in the US capital in 1976.
Mr. Valdés then moved to Mexico where he became a professor of international relations at the Economic Research and Development Centre of Mexico and continued his work towards the restoration of democracy and human rights in his country.