Humberto Calderón Berti (born 21 October 1941 in

Boconó Boconó is a city in the Venezuelan Andean state of Trujillo. Founded in 1560, this city is the shire town of the Boconó Municipality and, according to the 2001 Venezuelan census, the municipality has a population of 79,710.

, Venezuela) is a

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

n geologist, petroleum engineer, diplomat, politician and author, named in 2019 as ambassador to

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

by interim Venezuelan president

Juan Guaido ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, t ...

during the

2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis The Venezuelan presidential crisis is an ongoing political crisis concerning the leadership and the legitimate president of Venezuela; the office of the president has been contested since 10 January 2019, with the Responses to the Venezuelan p ...

, and welcomed by

Carlos Holmes Trujillo Carlos Holmes Trujillo García (23 September 1951 – 26 January 2021) was a Colombian Political family, dynasty politician, diplomat, scholar, and attorney who served as minister of defense, foreign affairs, interior, and education. He also se ...

, Colombia's foreign minister.

Career

Calderón Berti is a former president of

PDVSA Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA, ) (English: Petroleum of Venezuela) is the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company. It has activities in exploration, production, refining and exporting oil as well as exploration and production ...

(Venezuela's state-owned petroleum company), and the country's former Minister of Energy and Mines, as well as former

Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...

. He is also a former

OPEC The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC, ) is a cartel of countries. Founded on 14 September 1960 in Baghdad by the first five members (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela), it has, since 1965, been headquart ...

president. His undergraduate degree was from the

Central University of Venezuela The Central University of Venezuela (Spanish: ''Universidad Central de Venezuela''; UCV) is a public university of Venezuela located in Caracas. It is widely held to be the highest ranking institution in the country, and it also ranks 18th in L ...

, and he has a Master's in petroleum engineering from the

University of Tulsa The University of Tulsa (TU) is a private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church and the campus architectural style is predominantly Collegiate Gothic. The school traces its origin to ...

in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 2003, he and other former PDVSA petroleum executives founded the Colombian company, Vetra Energia, S.L. He solicited and was granted Spanish citizenship, where he has family and cultural ties, in 2018 because of persecution due to his membership in Venezuela's Social Christian political party ( Copei). On 26 November, Guaidó dismissed Calderón as ambassador in Colombia, citing plans to change foreign policy. Venezuelan diplomat

Diego Arria Diego Enrique Arria Salicetti (born 8 October 1938 in Caracas, Venezuela), is a Venezuelan politician and diplomat who served as Venezuela's Permanent Representative to the United Nations (1991–1993) and President of the Security Council (Mar ...

condemned the dismissal, calling it a "huge mistake".

Publications

His publications include: * ''Hacia una Política Petrolera Integral: la Responsabilidad Nacional, el Compromiso Internacional'' (1979) * ''La Coyuntura Petrolera Venezolana 1982'' (1982) * ''Venezuela y Su Política Petrolera, 1979–1983'' (1986) * ''La Invasión a Kuwait'' (1991)

References

External links

Bloomberg profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Calderon Berti, Humberto 1941 births Living people People from Trujillo (state) Central University of Venezuela alumni Copei politicians OPEC people University of Tulsa alumni People of the Crisis in Venezuela Venezuelan geologists 20th-century Venezuelan engineers Petroleum engineers 20th-century geologists Venezuelan Ministers of Foreign Affairs Venezuelan presidential crisis Presidents of PDVSA Energy ministers of Venezuela Ambassadors of Venezuela to Colombia