Pedro José Ribeiro de Menezes
Pedro José Ribeiro de Menezes (* 1939 ) is a retired Portuguese diplomat . He is the father of the diplomat Francisco Ribeiro de Menezes and the historian Filipe Ribeiro de Meneses .
His surname Menezes has actually been written Meneses since the Portuguese spelling reform of 1911 , but is often continued as Menezes by family members, including Pedro José Ribeiro de Menezes. Sometimes both spellings can be found in the press and in documents.
Life
Menezes began his diplomatic career in the 1960s, to the days of the Estado Novo dictatorship in the and in front of the profound change in the country after the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Thanks to the pragmatic new beginning of the new democratic foreign minister Mário Soares , in 1974 the apparatus of Portuguese foreign policy personnel left largely unchanged, Menezes also continued his diplomatic career unmolested.
In an interview with the Público newspaper in autumn 2011, he listed some special moments in his career, including scenes during the 1968 Paris riots in front of the Portuguese embassy, where he had started his first diplomatic service abroad, the difficult opening of the Portuguese embassy in Guinea. Bissau in 1974 after the end of the bloody Portuguese colonial war there, and his collaboration in setting up a new permanent representation of Portugal in Brussels before joining the then European Economic Community (now the EU ) in 1986 . The immediately preceding time at the Portuguese embassy in Washington, where the family was torn apart for the first time when his son Francisco left to study in Lisbon in 1983, he described as a deep turning point.
1988 Menezes was first chief responsibility ambassador , when he was appointed Portuguese Ambassador to Ireland was appointed. After two years he was ordered back to the Portuguese Foreign Ministry in Lisbon, where he became Director General of the Foreign Policy Department ( Direcção-Geral de Política Externa ).
In 1993 he was appointed Portuguese Ambassador to Brazil until he was called back to the Foreign Ministry in 1997, where he headed the General Secretariat of Foreign Minister Jaime Gama . Menezes was Gama's preferred candidate, the two had already worked together in the Foreign Ministry for a while, between Menezes' time in the USA and the rebuilding of the permanent representation in Brussels.
Menezes was Portuguese Ambassador to the Holy See from 2000 until he retired in 2004.
Awards (selection)
- 1985: Portuguese Order of Christ (Commander)
- 1993: Portuguese Order of Merit (Grand Cross)
- 1999: Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Grand Cross)
- 2000: Portuguese Order of Christ (Grand Cross)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Francisco O chefe de gabinete Filipe O reservado Pedro O rigoroso - "Francisco the office manager, Filipe the reserved, Pedro the strict" , article from November 22, 2011 about the two sons Menezes and their father Pedro in the Portuguese newspaper Público , accessed on February 25, 2020
- ↑ List of results after typing the name Pedro José Ribeiro de Menezes into the search field on the website of the Order of Honor of the Portuguese Presidency, accessed on February 25, 2020
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Menezes, Pedro José Ribeiro de |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Meneses, Pedro José Ribeiro de (alternative spelling) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Portuguese diplomat |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1939 |