Mexico City; November 7, 2013.- The Member States of OPANAL held the XXII Extraordinary Period of Sessions of the General Conference of the Organization to elect a new Secretary General, as well as two new Member States of the Council.

The General Conference, made up of the 33 States of Latin America and the Caribbean, unanimously elected Ambassador Luiz Filipe de Macedo Soares Guimarães as the new Secretary General of OPANAL for the period 2014-2017.

Ambassador Macedo Soares has extensive experience in disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation issues. He was Permanent Representative of Brazil to the United Nations Conference on Disarmament (2008-2010) and led the Brazilian delegation at the VIII Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 2010 and in several Sessions of the First Commission (Disarmament and international security) of the United Nations General Assembly. He previously served as Permanent Delegate of Brazil to UNESCO (2005-2008) and Ambassador of Brazil to Mexico (2000-2003), Norway (1998-2000) and India (1995-1998). Likewise, in the Brazilian Foreign Ministry he has served as Undersecretary General for South America, Central America and the Caribbean (2003-2005), among others.

The Ambassador of Brazil in Mexico, HE Marcos Leal Raposo Lopes, thanked on behalf of his Government the election of Ambassador Macedo Soares and expressed the commitment of the new Secretary General to continue strengthening OPANAL, a work that Ambassador Gioconda Ubeda, as its predecessor, developed outstandingly for four years.

The General Conference was held at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico (SRE) and was chaired by Ambassador Perla Carvalho, of Mexico, and the Vice-Chairs were headed by the Ambassador of Peru in Mexico, HE Javier Eduardo León Olavarría and by Dr. Hervey Loiseau, First Secretary of the Haitian Embassy in Mexico.

Within the framework of the meeting, the Conference elected by acclamation Mexico and Paraguay as new Members of the OPANAL Council, a position they will assume for the next four years. Along with these, the Council will be made up of Argentina, Ecuador and Venezuela (Read the press release).