Emilio Óscar Rabasa Mishkin (23 January 1925 – 14 June 2008) was a Mexican politician, diplomat and academic.

Early life

Rabasa Mishkin was born in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

, the son of Oscar Rabasa, a distinguished Mexican diplomat, and Mrs. Lillian Mishkin, and grandson of constitutional lawyer, poet, and one-time Governor of Chiapas

Emilio Rabasa Estebanell José Emilio Rabasa Estebanell (22 May 1856 — 25 April 1930) was a Mexican prominent writer, diplomat, and politician. He wrote extensively on constitutional law, served as Governor of Chiapas, as state congressman, chaired several Mexican A ...

(1856–1930). He studied law at the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigges ...

(UNAM), where he also earned his J.D. and later founded the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences.

Political career

Rabasa served as

Ambassador to the United States The following table lists ambassadors to the United States, sorted by the representative country or organization. See also *Ambassadors of the United States Notes {{reflist, 30em External linksCurrent and former Ambassadors to the United Sta ...

in 1970–71, during the government of

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

. On 1 December 1970,

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Luis Echeverría appointed him

Secretary of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

. He oversaw a period of intense diplomatic activity, during which Mexico doubled (from 67 to 129) the number of countries with which it maintained diplomatic relations, particularly among the nations of the

Third World The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the " First ...

and the

Non-Aligned Movement The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 120 countries that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide. The movement originated in the aftermath o ...

. During Rabasa's time at the foreign ministry, Mexico refused to impose

OAS OAS or Oas may refer to: Chemistry * O-Acetylserine, amino-acid involved in cysteine synthesis Computers * Open-Architecture-System, the main user interface of Wersi musical keyboards * OpenAPI Specification (originally Swagger Specification), ...

-led sanctions on

Castro Castro is a Romance language word that originally derived from Latin ''castrum'', a pre-Roman military camp or fortification (cf: Greek: ''kastron''; Proto-Celtic:''*Kassrik;'' br, kaer, *kastro). The English-language equivalent is '' chester''. ...

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

and admitted a flood of political refugees from Pinochet's

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. Rabasa was also instrumental in the country's adoption of a Economic Exclusion Zone and the creation of the Matías Romero Diplomatic Studies Institute. He also signed Mexico's first cooperation agreement with the

European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisb ...

.Emilio O. Rabasa
SRE biography. In 1975, the

member nations which also were part of the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...

pushed for the

Resolution 3379 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379, adopted on 10 November 1975 by a vote of 72 to 35 (with 32 abstentions), "determine that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination". It was revoked in 1991 with UN General Assembly R ...

along with Arab countries and the support of the

Soviet bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

. It was a declarative nonbinding measure that equated

Zionism Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a Nationalism, nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is ...

with South Africa's

Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

and as a form of

racial discrimination Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their skin color, race or ethnic origin.Individuals can discriminate by refusing to do business with, socialize with, or share resources with people of a certain g ...

. This process was a manifestation of

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

bipolar logics. The bloc voting produced a majority in the

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

that systematically condemned

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

in the following resolutions: 3089, 3210, 3236, 32/40, etc. On the other hand, the resolution must be read in the light of

politics promoted by political figures such as the Mexican president Luis Echeverría. He used the World Conference on Women, 1975 as a platform to build his own figure among the

and looking forward to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. This resulted in a touristic

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict som ...

of the American Jewish community against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, which made visible internal and external conflicts of Echeverría's politics, for example with Rabasa. Rabasa resigned from the cabinet on 28 December 1975, due to differences of opinion with President Echeverría arising from heightened international tensions following Mexico's vote in favour of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379, equating

with

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

. He was replaced by

Alfonso García Robles Alfonso García Robles (20 March 1911 – 2 September 1991) was a Mexican diplomat and politician who, in conjunction with Sweden's Alva Myrdal, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982. García Robles was born in Zamora, Michoacán, and trained ...

. After he stepped down he wrote several books including ''History of the Mexican Constitution'', ''The Political Thought of the Constituent'' and ''Environmental Law''. He later served at the

Permanent Court of Arbitration The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is a non-UN intergovernmental organization located in The Hague, Netherlands. Unlike a judicial court in the traditional sense, the PCA provides services of arbitral tribunal to resolve disputes that arise ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

and on the OAS's Inter-American Juridical Committee in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

Death

Rabasa died on 14 June 2008 of

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...

.Muere ex canciller Emilio Óscar Rabasa
'' El Universal'', 14 June 2008
Former chancellor Emilio Oscar Rabasa dies
(machine translation from Google)

References

External links

(IIJ/UNAM) {{DEFAULTSORT:Rabasa Mishkin, Emilio Oscar 1925 births 2008 deaths Ambassadors of Mexico to the United States Mexican Secretaries of Foreign Affairs Mexican people of Catalan descent National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni Academic staff of the National Autonomous University of Mexico Mexican jurists Members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration Politicians from Mexico City Mexican judges of international courts and tribunals