Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, (1920-2020)
The world on Wednesday, March 4, 2020 lost a peace maker, Peruvian-born Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, who served as two term Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1982 to 1991. Born on January 19, 1920 in Lima, Peru, Pérez de Cuéllar after studying Law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, joined the Ministry of […]
The world on Wednesday, March 4, 2020 lost a peace maker, Peruvian-born Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, who served as two term Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1982 to 1991.
Born on January 19, 1920 in Lima, Peru, Pérez de Cuéllar after studying Law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1940 and entered the diplomatic service in 1944.
He later became a part of Peru’s permanent delegation to the United Nations in 1971 and served as president of the United Nations Security Council in 1974. His deep association with the United Nations began in 1946 when he was a member of Peru’s delegation at the first session of the General Assembly.
After a series of high-profile diplomatic appointments, he was elected the fifth U.N. secretary-general, the first and only secretary-general from Latin America.
Pérez de Cuéllar brokered peace agreements in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, just as the Cold War softened under his tenure in the late 1980s and early ’90s.
Though a reluctant compromise choice that no one expected much from, especially as he admitted that he was not considered the most exciting candidate, he was remarkably successful.
His appointment was seen as a disappointment for Africa as he emerged at the expense of Tanzanian-born Salim Ahmed Salim after much diplomatic bargaining.
In the two terms from 1982 through 1991, he brokered the end of the 10-year war between Iran and Iraq, convinced Soviet forces to withdraw from Afghanistan, helped to reduce the scale of conflicts in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Cambodia, and saw to the independence of Namibia.
Also, under his tenure, United Nations peacekeepers won the 1988 Nobel Peace Prize for work in Mozambique and Angola.
He was however unable to persuade former Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, to withdraw his forces from Kuwait, and also failed to prevent the Gulf War in 1990. He nonetheless was able to bring the United States and the Soviet Union to dialogue on their conflicts at the United Nations, as the Cold War tensions eased.
He will also be remembered for mediating in the Falklands War between the United Kingdom and Argentina.
At the end of his tenure in 1991, Queen Elizabeth II awarded him an honorary knighthood, while former French President François Mitterrand awarded him France’s Legion of Honor. Former United States President George H.W. Bush also gave him America’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Pérez de Cuéllar was described as a skillful mediator, just as diplomats also saluted him for restoring prestige to the office of secretary general of the United Nations.
The current Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, called him “an accomplished statesman, a committed diplomat and a personal inspiration who left a profound impact on the United Nations and our world.”
“Mr. Pérez de Cuéllar’s life spanned not only a century but also the entire history of the United Nations, dating back to his participation in the first meeting of the General Assembly in 1946,” Mr. Guterres said.
“His tenure as Secretary-General coincided with two distinct eras in international affairs,” Mr. Guterres continued. “First, some of the iciest years of the Cold War, and then, with the ideological confrontation at an end, a time when the United Nations began to play more fully the role envisaged by the founders.”
Mitch Fifeld, Australian Ambassador to the U.N, also said Javier Pérez de Cuéllar deeply committed to peace and ending hunger, and would be missed by the UN and wider diplomatic community.