Javier Pérez de Cuéllar y de la
Guerra (born January 19, 1920, in Lima
) is a
Peruvian
diplomat who served as the
fifth Secretary-General of the
United Nations from January 1, 1982
to December 31, 1991. He studied in Colegio San Agustín of Lima, and
then at Pontificia Universidad Católica del
Perú
. In 1995, he ran unsuccessfully against
Alberto Fujimori for
President of Peru. He was
President of the Council of
Ministers, as well as Minister of Foreign Affairs from November
2000 until July 2001, during the turbulent period following
Fujimori's resignation over corruption charges.
In September 2004, he
stepped down from his position as Peru's Ambassador to France
, where he
formerly resided. He currently resides in Johor Bahru
, Malaysia
. With
the death of
Kurt Waldheim in June
2007, he became the oldest former Secretary General of the United
Nations. Mr. Perez de Cuellar is currently a member of the
International Olympic Committee's Ethics Commission, headquartered
in Laussanne, Switzerland, as well as an adviser to both UNESCO, in
Paris, France, and the International Red Cross, in Geneva,
Switzerland.
Biography
Diplomatic career
Pérez de
Cuéllar joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1940 and the
diplomatic service in 1944, serving subsequently as Secretary at
Peru's embassies in France, where he
met and married his first wife, the former Yvette Roberts; the
United
Kingdom
, Bolivia
, and
Brazil
. He later served as ambassador to Switzerland
, the Soviet
Union
, (concurrently in Poland
), and
Venezuela
. From his first marriage, Mr. Perez de
Cuellar has a son, (Francisco, b. Paris), and a daughter, Agueda
Cristina (b. London).
He was a junior member of the Peruvian delegation to the
General Assembly at its first session -
held in London in 1946-, and a member of the delegations to the
25th through 30th sessions of the Assembly. In 1971, he was
appointed permanent representative of Peru to the United Nations,
and he led his country's delegation to all sessions of the Assembly
from then until 1975.
In 1973
and 1974, he represented his country in the Security Council, serving as its
President at the time of the events in Cyprus
in July
1974. On 18 September 1975, he was appointed Special
Representative of the Secretary-General in Cyprus a post he held
until December 1977-, when he rejoined the Peruvian Foreign
Service. During his time in Cyprus, Mr. Perez de Cuellar married
his current wife, the former Marcela Temple Seminario, with whom he
has no children.
On 27 February 1979, he was appointed as United Nations
Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs.
From April 1981, while still holding this post, he acted as
the Secretary-General's Personal Representative on the situation
relating to Afghanistan
. In that capacity, he visited Pakistan
and Afghanistan in April and August of that year in
order to continue the negotiations initiated by the
Secretary-General some months earlier.
United Nations Secretary-General
On December 31, 1981, Pérez de Cuéllar succeeded
Kurt Waldheim as Secretary-General and was
re-elected for a second term in October 1986.
During his two terms,
he led mediations between Britain and Argentina
in the aftermath of the Falklands War and promoted the efforts of the
Contadora Group to bring peace and
stability to Central America.
He also
interceded in the negotiations for the independence of Namibia
, the conflict in Western Sahara
between Morocco
and the Polisario
Front, and the Cyprus issue. Shortly before the end of
his second term, he was unofficially requested by members of the
Security Council to reconsider his earlier decision not to run for
a third term, albeit shortened to two years, as a search for his
successor had not, as of then, yielded a consensus candidate. Mr.
Pérez de Cuéllar graciously declined the offer once a candidate was
found, in late December 1991, his second term as Secretary-General
concluding, as scheduled, on
December 31,
1991.
On December 12, 1991, he was presented with the
Presidential Medal of Freedom
by President
George H. W. Bush.
In popular culture
Pérez de Cuéllar was portrayed by
Arturo
Venegas in the
2002 BBC production of
Ian
Curteis's controversial
The
Falklands Play.
Sources
External links
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