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NEW COLOMBIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE OAS SEEKS TO FOSTER DIALOGUE IN THE INTER-AMERICAN RELATIONS

Ambassador Luis Alfonso Hoyos Aristizabal presented today his credentials to the Secretary General, Jose Miguel Insulza, as the new Permanent Representative of Colombia to the Organization of American States (OAS).

At the event, which took place at the Organization’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., the Colombian diplomat affirmed that he hopes to “continue to contribute to this continental forum in order to foster a dialogue that keeps the spirit of the OAS Charter and the Inter-American Democratic Charter; as well as to further cooperate with this hemispheric institution to achieve its established purposes.” The head of the Permanent Mission of Colombia to the OAS also affirmed that he expects that his job “results in something productive for all the OAS member states and positive for inter-American relations.”

Welcoming Ambassador Hoyos, Secretary General Insulza referred to the cooperation ties that have existed between the OAS and the Colombian Government. “In Colombia, we have developed a number of important tasks. One probe of that cooperation is that today, the biggest contingent of personnel from the OAS is located in this country, performing tasks related to the Mission to Support the Peace Process in Colombia (MAPP) and the OAS Good Offices Mission for the relations between Ecuador and Colombia,” he expressed.

At the ceremony, that was also attended by other country representatives and OAS high ranking officials, Insulza highlighted the substantive support that Colombia has offered to the Organization’s tasks and took the opportunity to reiterate his commitment to “intensify the efforts in order to achieve the approval of the free trade agreement that is still pending with the United States and to collaborate on other matters that will help to strengthen inter-American relations.”

Ambassador Hoyos is a lawyer from El Rosario University; he has a post-graduate degree in Political Science from Sorbonne University in Paris, and a Masters in Business Administration from Los Andes University.

Prior to taking the position as Ambassador to the OAS, Hoyos served as a government advisor to President Alvaro Uribe and was head of the Presidential Agency for Social Action and International Cooperation (Accion Social). He was also Senator of the Republic from 1994 until 1998, and Vice-president of the Second Committee in charge of National Defense, International Business and International Affairs, he also served as alternate Head of the Senate Human Rights Committee.

Reference: E-244/09