Inocencio F. Arias, also known as Chencho (born April 20, 1940 in

Albox Albox is a Spanish municipality in the province of Almeria in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is situated in the north eastern part of Valle del Almanzora and 120 km from the provincial capital, Almería. In the year 2017 it ha ...

Almería province Almería (, , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of the same name. It lies on southeastern Iberia on the Mediterranean Sea. Caliph Abd al-Rahman III founded the city in 955. The city g ...

), is a multifarious

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

diplomat, who served as

consul general A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. He retired in 2010.

Career

His previous assignment was as

Permanent Representative A permanent representative is a diplomat who is the head of a country’s diplomatic mission to an international organisation. Organizations that receive permanent representatives from their member states include the United Nations, the World Tr ...

of Spain to 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 ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. In the Security Council he presided the Antiterrorism Committee of the United Nations. Previously, he served as State Secretary for

International cooperation In international relations, multilateralism refers to an alliance of multiple countries pursuing a common goal. Definitions Multilateralism, in the form of membership in international institutions, serves to bind powerful nations, discourage u ...

and for

Ibero-America Ibero-America ( es, Iberoamérica, pt, Ibero-América) or Iberian America is a region in the Americas comprising countries or territories where Spanish or Portuguese are predominant languages (usually former territories of Portugal or Spain). ...

n Affairs (1991–93) and as Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1988–91). In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Arias was Director of the Diplomatic Information Office and

spokesman A spokesperson, spokesman, or spokeswoman, is someone engaged or elected to speak on behalf of others. Duties and function In the present media-sensitive world, many organizations are increasingly likely to employ professionals who have receiv ...

of the Department with quite different democratic administrations: center, 1980–82; socialist, 1985–88; and center-right, 1996-97. During his diplomatic career, he served in Bolivia,

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. He participated in several international conferences: the

Earth Summit The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio Conference or the Earth Summit (Portuguese: ECO92), was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to June 14, 1992. Earth Su ...

(

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 ...

1992); European Councils (1986, 87, 88, 96);

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

summit (Madrid, 1997);

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

Summit (Madrid 1991) and

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 ...

Summit ( Jakarta 1992); Iberoamerican Summits (

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

1991, Madrid 1992,

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro) and the 5th-largest b ...

1993, Santiago, Chile 1996). He has been a member of the Spanish Delegation to the 36th, 37th, 40th-43rd, and 51st-57th sessions 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 ...

Non-diplomatic experience

Arias, who holds a degree in Law and joined the diplomatic service in 1967, also has a considerable experience outside the diplomatic world. He was General Director of the football Club Real Madrid (1993–95). He also has experienced the academic field, having been professor of

International Relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such a ...

at the

Complutense University The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university loca ...

and at the University Carlos III, both in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

. Mr. Arias is the author of several books, papers and contributions, among others, on political issues and international relations. His latest title, "Confesiones de un diplomatico" (Publisher: Planeta), is about the events leading up to the Iraq invasion inside the U.N. Security Council, interspersed with U.S. famous historic events as well as the entertainment industry and U.S. pastimes viewed from a Spanish/European perspective. Martin Prieto in "El Mundo" writes that Arias, after examining the origins and development of the Iraq war, states that without the terrorist attack of March 2003 in Madrid the center-right Popular Party would have won the elections of that year and examines the European antiamericanism plus the American ignorance of Europe. M. Prieto concludes that the book is balanced and informative and with a lot of the sense of humour that Mr. Arias distillers. Perez Maura in "ABC" said that Arias "has written an enjoyable and illuminating book with some truly hilarious pages". In addition, Mr. Arias authored a book about three famous football stars ("Los Tres Mitos del Real Madrid"): Di Stéfano, Butragueño and Raúl; and edited a multilingual international soccer dictionary during the Football World Cup hosted by Spain in 1982. In February 2010 Arias published "''La Trastienda de la Diplomacia''" (Ed. Plaza Janés)(The backroom of diplomacy) that describes with humor and insight some 25 international encounters. The book had a fast second printing because the first one was sold out in three weeks.

Controversy about the Invasion of Iraq in 2003

Arias made the headlines in August 2003, when he was recalled from New York with immediate effect, despite the fact that he was officially on holiday. The mainstream media seemed to agree stating ''"it's no secret that the Spanish government is unhappy with comments made by Arias"'' who said that ''"if weapons of mass destruction were not found in Iraq, the justification of the decision to go to war would be undermined"''. The government said, however, that the ambassador returned for 'professional reasons'.http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/attack/armtwist/2003/0815arias.htm UN Envoy Recalled by Spain in Iraq Row (Global Policy Forum)

References

External links

FA Ministry
Spanish consulate in Los Angeles {{DEFAULTSORT:Arias, Inocencio People from the Province of Almería Permanent Representatives of Spain to the United Nations Living people 1940 births