Alfonso García Robles (20 March 1911 – 2 September 1991) was a Mexican diplomat and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

who, in conjunction with Sweden's

Alva Myrdal Alva Myrdal ( , ; née Reimer; 31 January 1902 – 1 February 1986) was a Swedish sociologist, diplomat and politician. She was a prominent leader of the disarmament movement. She, along with Alfonso García Robles, received the Nobel Peace ...

, received the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolog ...

in 1982. García Robles was born in Zamora, Michoacán, and trained in law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the Institute of Higher International Studies in Paris, France (1936) and the Hague Academy of International Law in the Netherlands (1938) before joining his country's foreign service in 1939. He served as a delegate to the 1945

San Francisco Conference The United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO), commonly known as the San Francisco Conference, was a convention of delegates from 50 Allied nations that took place from 25 April 1945 to 26 June 1945 in San Francisco, Calif ...

that established the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

. He was ambassador to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

from 1962 to 1964, and was state secretary to the ministry of foreign affairs from 1964 to 1970. In 1971–1975 he served as his country's representative to the United Nations before an appointment as foreign minister in 1975–76. He was then appointed as Mexico's permanent representative to the Committee on Disarmament of the UN. García Robles received the peace prize as the driving force behind the

Treaty of Tlatelolco The Treaty of Tlatelolco is the conventional name given to the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is embodied in the OPANAL (french: Agence pour l'interdiction des armes nucléaires en Amérique l ...

, setting up a nuclear-free zone in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

and the Caribbean. The agreement was signed in 1967 by most states in the region, though some states took some time to ratify the agreement. He was admitted to the Colegio Nacional of Mexico in 1972. His name was inscribed at the Wall of Honor of the

Palacio Legislativo de San Lázaro Palacio (''palace'') is a Spanish habitational name. It may have originated from many places in Spain, especially in Galicia and Asturies. Notable people with the surname include: * Agustina Palacio de Libarona (1825-1880), Argentine writer, sto ...

, Mexico's House of Representatives' building, in 2003. His widow died in 2005 aged 83.

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