| Diego Arria | |
|---|---|
| President of the United Nations Security Council | |
| In office 1 March 1992 – 31 March 1992 |
|
| Permanent Representative of Venezuela in the United Nations | |
| In office 11 March 1991 – August 1993 |
|
| President | Carlos Andrés Pérez |
| Succeeded by | Adolfo Raul Taylhardat |
| Minister of Information and Tourism | |
| In office February 1977[1] – 17 March 1978[1] |
|
| President | Carlos Andrés Pérez |
| Governor of Caracas, Capital District | |
| In office 15 March 1974[2] – February 1977[3] |
|
| President | Carlos Andrés Pérez |
| Preceded by | Guillermo Alvarez Bajarez[4] |
| Succeeded by | Manuel Montilla Caceres[4] |
| President of the Corporación Nacional de Hotelería y Turismo (CONAHOTU) | |
| In office 12 March 1969 – 2 February 1974 |
|
| President | Rafael Caldera |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1938-10-08 Caracas, Venezuela |
| Nationality | Venezuela |
| Spouse(s) | Maria Eugenia Maury |
| Religion | Catholic |
Diego Arria Salicetti (born October 8, 1938 - Caracas, Venezuela[5]) is a Venezuelan politician, diplomat, former Venezuelan Permanent Representative of Venezuela to the United Nations (1991–1993) and President of the Security Council (March 1992). He was Governor of the Federal District of Caracas in the mid-1970s. Other positions have included Diplomatic Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and Visiting Scholar at Columbia University.[6] He was said to be one of the "twelve apostles" (a group of powerful men close to the Presidency) of Carlos Andrés Pérez' first presidency.[7]
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Arria studied at the London School of Economics, and worked for the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C. until he returned to Venezuela in 1969, initially as Director of Tourism in Rafael Caldera's Ministry of Development, and later as president of the CONAHOTU (National Corporation of Hotels and Tourism).[8]
Arria resigned as head of CONAHOTU in order to support the presidential candidacy of Carlos Andrés Pérez (CAP) in 1973. Shortly after CAP was elected in March 1974, he appointed Arria Governor of the Federal District (Caracas),[2] at a time when this was one of the most important presidential appointments.[9] In 1976 when he was Governor of the Federal District he went to Chile and asked President Pinochet to release his friend Orlando Letelier; which Pinochet did, but soon after this Letelier was murdered with a car bomb in Washington D.C by Pinochet's order.[10] He subsequently moved from the governorship to become Minister of Information and Tourism in February 1977.[3][1][11] He resigned on 17 March 1978, in order to stand as an independent candidate in the Venezuelan presidential election, 1978;[1] he came fourth with 1.7% of the votes.[12] As part of his campaign Arria initiated the launch of the daily newspaper El Diario de Caracas.
Arria was Venezuelan Permanent Representative of Venezuela to the United Nations from 1991 to 1993,[13][14] and was President of the Security Council (March 1992),[15] during Venezuela's membership of the Security Council. Arria later became Special Advisor to Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the UN,[6] He initiated the eponymous 'Arria formula' a very informal consultation process which affords members of the Security Council the opportunity to hear persons in a confidential, informal setting. These meetings are presided over by a member of the Council as service facilitator for the discussion and not by the President of the Council. He was chairman during the massacres at Srebrenica. After visiting the enclave he warned of its impending doom and predicted the masacres saying it was "slow motion Genocide" and the besieged enclave itself as "a concentration camp policed by UNPROFOR".[16]
On April 30, 2010, Arria's ranch "La Carolina" in Yaracuy State was taken over by the Venezuelan government. Minister of Agriculture Elias Jaua "declared that lawyers and historians working for the National Lands Institute (INTI) ha[d] not been able to find continuity of ownership deeds in the national register and therefore the lands are "fallow" and return to the State".[17] According to government officials the ranch was unproductive and was a case of idle lands; according to Arria, the farm had 300 cattle and 90% of it was under some form of agricultural development.[18] When becoming aware of the expropriation threat Dr. Arria took photos of the farm and the cattle and posted them on the Internet, including the one used to illustrate this paragraph. Correo del Orinoco, a state-owned newspaper, reporting their claims that Arria's declarations about expropriation and loot by the Ministry of Agriculture are "subversive and tend to urge the homicide of Hugo Chavez".[19] According to Arria, the expropriation was a reaction to Arria's participation in the Oslo Freedom Forum, where he stated that Chavez will have to face International Justice one day for his "crimes" against the Venezuelan people.[20]
Married to Maria Eugenia Maury, they have twin daughters together, each has a child from a previous marriage.[21] She is President of Aid for AIDS International, a 501c3 nonprofit organization that recycles HIV/AIDS medication for redistribution in developing countries in Latin America.