Heraldo Muñoz Valenzuela (born July 22, 1948) is a
Chilean
political scientist, academic, diplomat and politician; the former
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile ( es, Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores) is the cabinet-level administrative office in charge of planning, directing, coordinating, executing, controlling and informing the foreign policy formulated by ...
under President
Michelle Bachelet; former Assistant Secretary General, Assistant Administrator, and Regional Director for
Latin America and the Caribbean of the
United Nations Development Programme; and the former Chilean
Ambassador
An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...
to the
United Nations, to
Brazil, and to the
Organization of American States
The Organization of American States (OAS; es, Organización de los Estados Americanos, pt, Organização dos Estados Americanos, french: Organisation des États américains; ''OEA'') is an international organization that was founded on 30 April ...
.
Early life and career
Heraldo Muñoz was born in
Santiago on July 22, 1948. After graduating from ''Liceo de Aplicación'', an all-boys public high school, he attended the
University of Chile where he studied English. After the first year, he left to major in political science at the
State University of New York (SUNY), Oswego, thanks to a scholarship from the
Institute of International Education.
After gaining his B.A. at SUNY, he obtained a Diploma in international relations from the
Catholic University of Chile (1975, graduated with honors), followed by a Masters (M.A.) and a Doctorate (Ph.D.) in international relations from the
Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the
University of Denver, Colorado (1978). He was a doctoral fellow at the
Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C. (1977), where he wrote his Ph.D. dissertation. He received fellowships from
Resources for the Future, the
Ford Foundation, the Tinker Foundation, the
Twentieth Century Fund, and the
MacArthur Foundation.
Upon completion of his doctorate, Muñoz went back to Chile and returned to work as an academic at the
University of Chile's Institute of International Studies, having started there as professor in 1974. He taught, researched and published extensively in the field of international relations in this period; and also founded and directed the ''Program on Latin American Foreign Policies'' (PROSPEL), a foreign policy research institute which published annual reports on the foreign policies of Latin American governments (1984-1990).
In 1987, he co-founded Chile's
Party for Democracy (PPD), and participated in the Executive Committee of the "No" Campaign which defeated
Augusto Pinochet in the 1988 plebiscite. Prior to that, he was a member of Chile's Socialist Party (1983-1986), and served as secretary of foreign relations and member of its central committee; he also ran as candidate for undersecretary general on a list headed by
Ricardo Lagos.
Diplomatic career
Once democracy returned to Chile, Muñoz was named Ambassador Permanent Representative for Chile to the
Organization of American States
The Organization of American States (OAS; es, Organización de los Estados Americanos, pt, Organização dos Estados Americanos, french: Organisation des États américains; ''OEA'') is an international organization that was founded on 30 April ...
by President
Patricio Aylwin (1990-1994); during his mission, he sat on the Executive Committee of the Global Environmental Partnership with then Senator
Al Gore
Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...
. During the administration of
Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, Muñoz served as Ambassador to Brazil (1994-1998); during this mission, he participated in negotiations to end hostilities between Peru and Ecuador. President
Ricardo Lagos appointed Muñoz as Deputy Minister of Foreign Relations (March 2000); and in January 2002, as Minister Secretary General of Government. In 2003, Lagos named him Chile's Ambassador Permanent Representative to the
United Nations.
United Nations career
When Muñoz became ambassador to the UN, Chile was a non-permanent member of the Security Council (2003-2004); hence, Muñoz served as President of the
Security Council (January 2004), a position that is rotated monthly. While on the Council, Muñoz also presided the Al-Qaida/Taliban Sanctions Committee, traveling to countries like Afghanistan, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Iran, in line with Security Council resolutions, to supervise the implementation of arms embargoes, asset freezes, and travel bans of those groups. In 2008, the ''New York Times'' featured his life and work in ''The Saturday Profile''.
In February 2009, Secretary General
Ban Ki Moon appointed him as head of a UN Commission of Inquiry to investigate the assassination of former Prime Minister of
Pakistan Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto ( ur, بینظیر بُھٹو; sd, بينظير ڀُٽو; Urdu ; 21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 t ...
in response to a request by Pakistani President
Asif Ali Zardari. The report of the findings of the Commission, delivered in April 2010, resulted in the reopening of the case in the courts of Pakistan and the subsequent arrests of several high level individuals.
Other positions Muñoz held while Ambassador to the UN were: chairman of the
Peacebuilding Commission
The United Nations Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) is a United Nations intergovernmental advisory body of both the General Assembly and the Security Council that supports peace efforts in conflict affected countries. A key addition to the capacity ...
; facilitator of the
Security Council reform consultations (2007-2008); Vice President of the
General Assembly's 61st Session (2006-2007); and member of the
Human Rights Commission reform consultations (today known as the
Human Rights Council).
As Chairman of the Peacebuilding Commission, in 2009 he obtained a donation of the funds collected through author's rights from a new digital version of
John Lennon's song, "
Give Peace a Chance" by his widow, artist
Yoko Ono. Muñoz and Ono also collaborated in an initiative for
Autism Speaks: Ono donated a work of art for an auction to benefit the efforts of that organization on the occasion of the United Nations Autism Awareness Day, an event that was sponsored by the Mission of Chile to the UN in 2009.
In May 2010, Muñoz was appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon as Assistant Secretary General, Assistant Administrator, and Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the
United Nations Development Programme.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
President Michelle Bachelet named him Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile in 2014. As such, he led Chile in its response to a case presented by
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
at the
International Court of Justice, intended to force Chile t
negotiate a sovereign access to the Pacific Oceanfor Bolivia. Chile won the case by an overwhelming majority of the Court. Likewise during Muñoz's tenure, the Foreign Ministry elaborated a ''National Action Plan for Human Rights and Business'', which was presented to President Bachelet in 2017.
Also that year, Venezuela's political opposition to the government of
Nicolás Maduro
Nicolás Maduro Moros (; born 23 November 1962) is a Venezuelan politician and president of Venezuela since 2013, with his presidency under dispute since 2019.
Beginning his working life as a bus driver, Maduro rose to become a trade unio ...
requested that Muñoz represent them, along with Foreign Minister of Mexico
Luis Videgaray Caso, in negotiations held in the
Dominican Republic, to set conditions for the then upcoming presidential elections: these efforts were eventually unsuccessful due to the intransigence of Venezuelan authorities and disagreements within the opposition. Furthermore, by invitation from the then US
Secretary of State John Kerry, Muñoz joined an international campaign to protect the ocean. As a result of this involvement, Chile turned 1.4 million square kilometers of its waters into marine protected areas, becoming a world leader in ocean protection. Muñoz also achieved -after many failed attempts by previous governments- congressional approval of the bill for the modernization of the Foreign Ministry; the bill was promulgated by President Bachelet on March 7, 2018. Muñoz also led the elaboration of an agenda for Chile's foreign policy of the future entitled ''Política Exterior 2030''. Finally, Muñoz created and promoted the concept of "convergence in diversity" between the two integration mechanisms for the region, the
Pacific Alliance and
Mercosur.
Career after office
In 2018 the Pew Charitable Foundation and the
Bertarelli Foundation
The Bertarelli Foundation is a private foundation founded by the Bertarelli family; brother and sister Ernesto and Dona Bertarelli, who are co-Chairs of the Foundation, and their mother, Maria Iris Bertarelli. It was established in 1998 in memor ...
named Muñoz ''Ambassador of the Ocean''.
In 2018, Muñoz was elected President of the
Party for Democracy (PPD). His term ended in August 2021.
In September 2019 Muñoz was named Director of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation.
Munoz intentionally planned to run in the
2021 Chilean presidential election
General elections were held in Chile on 21 November 2021, including presidential, parliamentary and regional elections. Voters went to the polls to elect the President of the Republic to serve a four-year term, 27 of 50 members of the Senate t ...
, but ended up dropping out in May 2021.
Books and publications
* ''A Solitary War: A Diplomat's Chronicle of the Iraq War and Its Lessons'', Fulcrum Publishing, 2008 (it has been translated into Spanish).
*
* ''The Dictator's Shadow: Life Under Augusto Pinochet'', Basic Books, 2008 (it has been translated into Spanish and Portuguese). ''
Newsweek'' said about it: Muñoz wrote "an insightful and poignant new personal memoir of the Pinochet years." The ''
Washington Post'' called it "a meticulous and vivid new book... Muñoz delivers a compelling, personal account of life in a police state and a strong reminder of how far Chile has come": and the paper also listed ''The Dictator's Shadow'' among the best books of 2008. In 2009,
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
presented him with the WOLA-Duke award for the best non-fiction book on the subjects of human rights, democracy, and social justice.
*
* ''Getting Away with Murder: Benazir Bhutto's Assassination and the Politics of Pakistan'', W.W. Norton & Company, 2013, a book based on the aforementioned UN investigation over which Muñoz presided.
Other books written or edited by Muñoz are:
* ''Democracy Rising: Assessing the Global Challenges'' (Heraldo Muñoz, editor; Lynn Rienner Publishers, 2006)
* ''Globalización XXI: América Latina y los desafíos del nuevo milenio'' (Heraldo Muñoz, editor; Aguilar, 2000)
* ''A Nova Política Internacional'' (Heraldo Muñoz; Fundaçao Alexandre de Gusmao, 1996)
* ''Latin American Nations in World Politics'' (Heraldo Muñoz and Joseph Tulchin, editors; Westview Press, 1996)
* ''Política Internacional de los Nuevos Tiempos'' (Heraldo Muñoz; Editorial Los Andes, 1996)
* ''The Future of the Organization of American States'' (Heraldo Muñoz and Viron L. Vaky; The Twentieth Century Fund Press, 1993)
* ''Difficult Liaison: Trade and the Environment in the Americas'' (Heraldo Muñoz and Robin Rosenberg, editors; Transaction Publishers, 1993)
* ''El Fin del Fantasma: Las relaciones interamericanas después de la guerra fría'' (Heraldo Muñoz, editor; Ediciones Pedagógicas Chilenas S.A., 1992)
* ''Environment and Diplomacy in the Americas'' (Heraldo Muñoz, editor; Lynn Reinner Publishers, 1992)
* ''Chile: Política Exterior para la Democracia'' (Heraldo Muñoz, editor; Pehuén, 1989)
* ''Una Amistad Esquiva'' (Heraldo Muñoz y Carlos Portales; Pehuén, 1987)
* ''Latin American Views of US Policy'' (Robert Wesson and Heraldo Muñoz, editors; Praeger, 1986)
* ''Las Relaciones Exteriores del Gobierno Militar Chileno'' (Heraldo Muñoz; Las Ediciones del Ornitorrinco y Prospel-CERC, 1986)
* ''From Dependency to Development: Strategies to Overcome Underdevelopment and Inequality'' (Heraldo Muñoz, editor; Westview Press, 1981)
* ''Desarrollo energético en América Latina y la economía mundial'' (Heraldo Muñoz, editor; Editorial Universitaria, 1980).
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
holds in the Rubenstein Library a collection of many of the documents of Heraldo Muñoz, ''A guide to the Heraldo Muñoz Papers, 1963-2013 and undated''.
Honors and Awards
* ''Distinguished Alumnus Award,''
Josef Korbel School of International Studies,
University of Denver (1991)
* ''Distinguished Alumnus Award'',
State University of New York
The State University of New York (SUNY, , ) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. It is one of the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. Led by c ...
(1994)
* ''Doctor of Humane Letters'',
State University of New York
The State University of New York (SUNY, , ) is a system of public colleges and universities in the State of New York. It is one of the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States. Led by c ...
(1995)
* ''Doctor of the University'',
University of Ottawa, Canada (2009)
* ''Doctor of Humane Letters'',
Pace University (2009)
* Grand Cross Isabel la Católica (2014)
Notes
See also
*
List of foreign ministers in 2017
*
List of current foreign ministers
References
United Nations biographyopenDemocracy article and interviewAssessment of the President of the Security Council for the month of January 2004 (Muñoz's term)
External links
*
Heraldo Munoz Papers at Duke University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Munoz, Heraldo
Living people
1948 births
Chilean democracy activists
Josef Korbel School of International Studies people
Pontifical Catholic University of Chile alumni
Chilean Ministers Secretary General of Government
Permanent Representatives of Chile to the United Nations
People from Santiago
State University of New York at Oswego alumni
Permanent Representatives of Chile to the Organization of American States
Party for Democracy (Chile) politicians
Ambassadors of Chile to Brazil
Chilean people of Spanish descent
International relations scholars
Foreign ministers of Chile