Biographical Note

NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF BOLIVIA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

(Based on information received from the Protocol and Liaison Service.)

Javier Murillo de la Rocha, the new Permanent Representative of Bolivia to the United Nations, presented his credentials today to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Prior to his current post, Mr. Murillo was his country's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Worship from 1997.  Appointed Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs in 1993, he served as Bolivia's Ambassador to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Russian Federation from 1991 to 1993.

Other diplomatic posts held by Mr. Murillo include that of Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations, Consul in Santiago, Chile, Assistant Secretary for Foreign Policy and other positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship, beginning in 1967.

In the private sector, he has served as the Executive Director of the Private Enterprise Foundation of La Paz.  From 1984 to 1989, he was Executive Secretary of the Confederation of Private Entrepreneurs of Bolivia, and from 1978 to 1981, General Secretary of the Andean Development Corporation, a financial institution based in Venezuela.

Mr. Murillo received his postgraduate degree in international economic relations from the University of Antwerp, Belgium.  He also holds diplomas in integration and external trade and has taught foreign policy and public international law at various universities.

A member of the Bolivian National Order of the Condor of the Andes, Grand Cross level, he has also received distinguished decorations from the Governments of Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela and Spain.

Mr. Murillo is married with two children.

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