NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF NICARAGUA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS
Press Release
BIO/3191
NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF NICARAGUA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS
19980911 Biographical Note (Based on information received from Protocol and Liaison Service.)Alfonso Ortega Urbina, the new Permanent Representative of Nicaragua to the United Nations, presented his credentials today to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Prior to his current appointment, Mr. Ortega Urbina held numerous posts in the foreign service of his country, including as the Ambassador to the following countries: Colombia (1998); Canada (1997); and Paraguay and Brazil, concurrently (1992). From 1990 to 1992, he worked as adviser to the Foreign Minister of Nicaragua.
Earlier in his diplomatic career he was Nicaraguan Ambassador to Brazil (1975); to Paraguay and Bolivia, concurrently (1972); to Mexico (1962); and to Honduras (1959). In 1962, Mr. Ortega Urbina was the Foreign Minister of Nicaragua, having served as Deputy Minister in 1961.
In his capacity as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ortega attended, among others, the ninth consultative meeting of Foreign Affairs Ministers of the OAS (1964), and the meetings of Foreign Affairs Ministers of Central America (1965) and the ministerial meeting of Central American nations and Panama (1966). He also accompanied President Lorenzo Guerrero of Nicaragua to the preliminary consultative meeting and the summit meeting of Heads of State of the Americas, held in Uruguay in 1967.
Mr. Ortega Urbina began his diplomatic career in 1950 as Secretary in the Nicaraguan Embassy in Spain. From that time until 1957 he held a series of foreign service positions. In 1953, he was posted to the Embassy in Costa Rica, working as Secretary. He served as Counsellor to Nicaraguan Embassies in El Salvador and Mexico in 1995 and then, in 1996, was promoted to Minister Council of both Embassies. In 1997 he was posted in Washington, D.C., as Minister Council and Deputy Permanent Representative to the OAS.
Mr. Ortega Urbina received a Doctorate of law from the University of Granada in 1947, and a master's degree in comparative law in 1953 from the Law Institute of the Americas of the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He obtained a diploma from the Madrid School of Diplomacy in 1950.
Born in Granada on 24 February 1925, Mr. Ortega Urbina is married and has five children.
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