Alejandro Orfila

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Alejandro Orfila (front, center) with US President Jimmy Carter and the head of the Panama military junta , General Omar Torrijos , after the Torrijos-Carter Treaties were signed on September 7, 1977 in Washington, DC

Alejandro Orfila (born March 9, 1925 in Mendoza , Mendoza Province , Argentina ) is a former Argentine diplomat , winemaker and entrepreneur who was ambassador to Japan and the USA and from 1975 to 1984 Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS).

Life

Origin, studies and ambassador

Orfila comes from a family of winemakers who have been viticulture in Argentina for four generations . In 1905 his grandfather founded the family company José Orfila Ltda. that still exists today. His father Alejandro Orfila was governor of the province of Mendoza between 1926 and 1928.

After attending school, he himself completed a law degree at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), which he graduated in 1945. In addition, he later completed a postgraduate degree in political science at Stanford University and another degree in foreign economics at Tulane University .

After completing his studies, he entered the foreign service and was initially employed between 1946 and 1947 as legation secretary in the Foreign Ministry in Buenos Aires and then as embassy secretary at the embassy in the Soviet Union . He was then consul in Warsaw between 1947 and 1948 and consul in San Francisco from 1948 to 1949 , before he was consul in New Orleans from 1949 to 1950 , before he served as secretary at the embassy in the USA between 1950 and 1952.

Orfila then worked for a year as director of the company José Orfila Ltda, founded by his grandfather . worked in Mendoza before returning to Washington, DC in 1953, where he was director of the OAS public relations office until 1958 . He was then an envoy at the embassy in the USA between 1958 and 1960 .

On December 23, 1960, he received his accreditation as ambassador to Japan as the successor to Javier Gallac and worked there until he was replaced by Adolfo Bollini in September 1962. He then left the diplomatic service and worked as a management consultant in international finance and business.

Orfila became ambassador to the United States on November 15, 1973, and remained in that post until July 1975.

Secretary General of the OAS, entrepreneur and winemaker

During this time he was first elected as Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) for a five-year term in October 1974. He took up this post in July 1975 as the successor to Galo Plaza Lasso , who was President of Ecuador from 1948 to 1952 and who was OAS Secretary General from 1968 to 1975. During his tenure, he took part in the signing of the Torrijos Carter Treaties by US President Jimmy Carter and the head of the Panama military junta , General Omar Torrijos , in Washington, DC on September 7, 1977 . With the two treaties, the two states regulated the future status of the Panama Canal and the Panama Canal Zone . The treaties replaced the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty from 1903, after which the territory was controlled by the United States as the outer territory of the United States .

In October 1979 he was re-elected by the General Assembly of the OAS for a second five-year term, but resigned from his office one year before the end of his term in 1984. After a brief provisional performance of the Barbados- born Deputy Secretary General Val McComie , the previous Brazilian Foreign Minister , João Baena Soares , took over the post of OAS Secretary General in 1984.

Orfila then returned to working as a management consultant and investor in the fields of international finance and real estate, and in August 1989 he and his German wife, Helga Leifeld, settled in Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego County , California , where he also settled in Engaged in real estate and community activities before founding Orfila Vineyards & Winery in April 1994 .

For his diplomatic services he has been awarded numerous domestic and foreign medals as well as honorary doctorates from various universities, such as on September 23, 2014 from California State University, San Marcos .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alejandro Orfila, reelegido secretario general de la OEA . In: El País of October 25, 1979
  2. ↑ El secretario general de la OEA dimite al comenzar la Asamblea General del organismo . In: El País of November 15, 1983
  3. ↑ CSUSM Honors Ambassador Alejandro Orfila with Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters (CSUSM press release of October 3, 2014)
personal data
SURNAME Orfila, Alejandro
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Argentine diplomat, entrepreneur and winemaker
DATE OF BIRTH March 9, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Mendoza , Mendoza Province , Argentina