Alvaro DE SOTO

Background:

Alvaro de Soto, an ambassador in the Peruvian diplomatic service, spent 25 years in senior positions at the United Nations from 1982 to May 2007. His UN career began with 13 years in senior positions in the Secretary-General’s office and 5 years as Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs. Among many assignments in peacemaking and peacekeeping during that time, Mr de Soto was the Secretary-General’s Personal Representative for the Central American Peace Process, in which capacity he led the 1990-1991 negotiations which resulted in a number of profound social and institutional reforms and ended the decade-long war in El Salvador. From 1995 to 1999 he was the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Myanmar. He was promoted Under-Secretary-General in 1999. From 1999 to 2004 he led the negotiations on Cyprus which produced a comprehensive settlement proposal that was submitted to the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots in separate and simultaneous referendums in April 2004, approved by the latter but rejected by the former. He was the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the Western Sahara from October 2003 to April 2005. His last assignment, from May 2005 to May 2007, was as UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.