High-level professionals appointed as CAN Director Generals and Special Advisor

Lima, September 27, 2002. Andean Community (CAN) Secretary General, Guillermo Fernández de Soto, yesterday appointed high-level professionals of recognized international prestige to the positions of Director Generals and Special Advisor to that organization headquartered in Lima.

The professionals are José Antonio García Belaúnde from Peru, Richard Moss Ferreira from Ecuador and Héctor Maldonado Lira from Venezuela, each of whom will head a subject area office as Director General. Peruvian citizen Alfredo Barnechea will be the Special Advisor.

The Director Generals were designated, after consulting with the Member countries, through Resolutions 647, 648 and 653, in keeping with the Cartagena Agreement which stipulates that only “nationals of a Member country” may be hold the position of Director General and that those appointments shall be made “strictly in accordance with their academic training, suitability, honorability and experience.”

Born in Guayaquil in 1959, Richard Moss is an economist with a degree conferred by Cornell University and graduate studies at Doshisha University and the Tokyo University of Keio (Japan) and a master’s degree in Business Administration and International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.

He held important positions in the private sector, including Chairman of the Board and founding member of New Horizons Computer Learning Centers, Vice-President of the Ecuadorian Division of Macosa S.A., Marketing Director of InteleQ S.A., and Management Associate of Citibank N.A., New York, until his appointment as Ecuador’s Minister of Foreign Trade, Industrialization and Fisheries, a position he occupied until this past August.

A diplomat by profession with a graduate degree in Foreign Policy conferred by Oxford University (England), Ambassador José Antonio García Belaunde was born in Lima in 1948. With broad diplomatic and academic experience, he has authored several articles and publications and has been a professor at Peru’s Diplomatic Academy and the University of San Martín de Porres, where he coordinates the Master’s Degree in International Relations; a lecturer at the Center for Advanced National Studies (CAEN), and a member of the Peruvian Center for International Studies (CEPEI) and of the Peruvian International Law Society (SPDI).

He occupied diplomatic posts at the United Nations and the Peruvian Embassies to the United States, France, Mexico, Spain and Ecuador and served as Ambassador to the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA). He held several positions at the central government level, such as Director of Economic Affairs of the Foreign Ministry. His experience as Director-Secretary of the Board of the Cartagena Agreement (1990-1997) and Advisor to the CAN Secretary General (1997-2001) has made him a specialist in integration matters.

Born in Caracas (Venezuela), Héctor Maldonado is an engineer with a master’s degree in International Politics from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) and a Ph.D. in Philosophy conferred by the University of California (Berkley). His professional experience is ample. He served as advisor to the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) and the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA) on transportation matters, taught at several universities in Caracas and held the government positions of Director General of Planning, Director General of Roads and Minister of Industry and Trade, among others.

He has set down his knowledge of integration, gleaned from his work at the Board of the Cartagena Agreement as Head of Physical Integration (1987-93) and as Minister-Counselor and Chargé d’Affaires at the Embassy of Venezuela to the European Union (1993-96), in a series of studies and publications, among them “Treinta años de la Comunidad Andina: Balance y perspectives”, “El Pacto Andino: perspectivas en la integración latinoamericana” and “Pacto Andino: Mercado de la Integración del año 2000”.

Born in 1952, well-known Peruvian intellectual, Alfredo Barnechea, has written a number of books entitled “La República embrujada” (Aguilar, 1995), “Peregrinos de la lengua” (Alfaguara, 1977), “La mayoría de uno” (Aguilar, 2000), and “Para salir del laberinto” (Aguilar, 2001) and pens columns syndicated by Firmas Press that are published in over thirty Spanish-language newspapers. In 1997, he created and directed the television program “Contacto Directo,” that was of key importance in country’s the transition to democracy in those years.

Holder of a Master’s degree in Public Administration (Harvard University) and a Bachelor of Arts degree conferred by the Catholic University of Peru, Barnechea is a professor preparing candidates for a Doctoral Degree in Social Science at the National University of San Marcos and the Government Institute of San Martín de Porres University. He served as Deputy in the Peruvian national Congress, was a member of the World Council of Parliamentarians for a World Order and of the Advisory Commission of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a worked as a consultant for the Latin American Economic System (SELA) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). He has also belonged to Council of Europe groups for reflection on relations with Latin America.

The Director Generals will assume their positions on October 14, in the cases of Richard Moss and Héctor Maldonado and on November 1, in that of José Antonio García Belaunde.