Previous Secretaries General
Ambassador Luiz Filipe de Macedo Soares
Secretary General (2014 – 2019)
Ambassador Luiz Filipe de Macedo Soares was elected as Secretary General of OPANAL for the period 2014-2017 and re-elected for a second period, from 2018 until December 31, 2021. He finished his term on December 31, 2019.
He was the Permanent Representative of Brazil to the Conference on Disarmament from 2008 to 2011 (President of the Conference on Disarmament in July 2010).
In 2010, he was Head of the Brazilian Delegation at the VIII Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons – NPT, and at the II Conference on Nuclear Weapon Free Zones and Mongolia.
In addition, he was appointed Permanent Representative of Brazil to UNESCO from 2005 to 2008.
He was Ambassador of Brazil in Mexico concurrent to Belize (2000-2003), Norway (1998-2000) concurrent to Iceland (1999-2000) and India (1995-1998) concurrent to Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives (1996-1998). ).
In the Ministry of State for Foreign Affairs of Brazil, he was Undersecretary General for South America (2003-2005); Director General for the Americas (1992-1995); Head of the Environmental Affairs Division (1990-1992); Head of the Maritime, Antarctic and Outer Space Affairs Division (1985-1987).
Ambassador Gioconda Ubeda Rivera (DEP)
General Secretary (2010 – 2013)
Of Costa Rican nationality, Ambassador Gioconda Ubeda Rivera was Secretary General of OPANAL from February 1, 2010 to July 31, 2013. She subsequently assumed the position of Vice Chancellor of the Republic of Costa Rica and then Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Costa Rica in Panama.
In June 2006 she was appointed Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Costa Rica to the United Mexican States, a position she held until January 2010.
Since 1986 he served in various positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship of the Republic of Costa Rica, including Legal Director of the Foreign Ministry with the rank of Ambassador; National Coordinator of State Reports on Human Rights; Founding president of the Costa Rican Commission of International Humanitarian Law and State Agent in the defense of Human Rights cases.
From 1998 to 2002 she was a consultant to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). From 1999 to 2006 she was a professor of Public International Law and International Humanitarian Law at the University of Costa Rica. She has a degree in Law from the University of Costa Rica. She later completed postgraduate studies in International Relations at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) in Argentina.
Ambassador Edmundo Vargas Carreño
Secretary General (2001 – 2007)
He was born on April 22, 1937 in Viña del Mar, Chile. He was Secretary General of OPANAL from June 1, 2001 to June 30, 2007.
He studied at the School of Law of the Catholic University of Valparaíso (1955-1960), where he obtained the degree of Bachelor of Legal and Social Sciences with maximum distinction. He concluded the Postgraduate Degree in International Law and Politics with the qualification “Summa Cum Laude” in the Institute of International Law and Politics of the University of Social Studies of Rome, Italy (1961-1962).
He has served as: Legal Advisor, with the rank of Ambassador, in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Chile (1966 – 1970); Director of the Andrés Bello Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Chile (1968 – 1970); Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (1977 – 1990); Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Chile (1990 – 1993); Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Chile to the Argentine Republic (1993 – 1994); Permanent Representative of the Republic of Chile to the Organization of American States (1994 – 1997); Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Chile to the Republic of Costa Rica (1997 – 2000).
In 2007 he was elected member of the United Nations International Law Commission. The following year, he was appointed President of said Commission for the period 2008-2009.
Ambassador Enrique Román-Morey
Secretary General (1994 – 2000)
Born in the city of El Callao, Peru. Career Diplomat of the Foreign Service of the Republic of Peru, graduated from the Diplomatic Academy of Peru in 1970. He was Secretary General of OPANAL from January 1, 1994 to December 31, 2000. He later served as Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations Disarmament Conference and Director of the United Nations Disarmament Office in Geneva.
During his mandate as Secretary General of OPANAL, he led the organization of the following seminars: “Non-Proliferation: Points of view from Latin America and the Caribbean” (Cancún, Mexico, 1995); “IAEA Safeguards Regime” (Kingston, Jamaica, 1996); “Nuclear Weapons Free Zones in the Next Century” (Mexico City, 1997); and "Disarmament and Security: A New Agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean for the Next Millennium" (Lima, Peru, 1999).
He is a member of the Group of Experts of the organization “Program to Promote Nuclear Non-Proliferation” (PPNN). He is a member of the Mexican Academy of International Law since 1997, an institution that distinguished him with the Honoris Causa Doctorate in International Law.
Román-Morey served as Permanent Representative of the Republic of Peru to the United Nations in New York from 2011 to 2013. Subsequently, in 2014, he chaired the Third Preparatory Committee of the 2015 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
Doctor Antonio Stempel Paris
Secretary General (1986 – 1993)
Antonio Stempel Paris was born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1926. He was elected Secretary General of OPANAL during the IV Extraordinary Period of Sessions of the General Conference. Dr. Stempel Paris was elected to finish the second term of the previous Secretary General, Ambassador Ricardo Martínez Cobo.
He graduated from the Central University of Venezuela with the degree of Doctor in Political Science in 1949.
During its XI Regular Session, held in Mexico City in April 1989, the General Conference of OPANAL re-elected him for an additional four-year term.
Doctor José Ricardo Martínez Cobo (DEP)
Secretary General (1981 – 1985)
José Ricardo Martínez Cobo was born in Ambato, Ecuador in 1921. He obtained a Doctorate in Jurisprudence and Social Sciences at the Central University of Ecuador in 1945. After entering the Foreign Service of Ecuador, he served as ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in the Republic of Colombia, in the Eastern Republic of Uruguay and in the Republic of Chile, among other assignments during his diplomatic career.
Ambassador Martínez Cobo was elected as Secretary General of OPANAL on July 1, 1981. In 1985, he was re-elected by the General Conference of OPANAL for a second term, however he announced that he would have to leave the position as of December 31, 1985.
Ambassador Martínez Cobo had his first contact with OPANAL in 1973, when he was elected President of the III Ordinary Period of Sessions of the General Conference of the Organization, held in Mexico City. Subsequently, he was President of the Ecuadorian delegation at the General Conferences of OPANAL in 1975 and 1997. In 1979, he was the alternate President of the VI Period of Sessions of the General Conference of the Organization, held in Quito, Ecuador.
Dr. Martínez Cobo died on February 9, 2009. On May 21, 2009, the OPANAL Council adopted the resolution C/Res.48 through which a posthumous tribute was paid to him for his important efforts as Secretary General of the Organization.
Ambassador Héctor Gros Espiell (DEP)
Secretary General (1973 – 1981)
Héctor Gros Espiell was born in Montevideo, Uruguay on September 17, 1926. In 1951, he graduated with a Doctorate in Law and Social Sciences from the University of Uruguay.
On January 3, 1973, Ambassador Gros Espiell occupied the position of Secretary General OPANAL, replacing Ambassador Antonio González de León, who had served as Deputy Secretary General after the resignation of Ambassador Leopoldo Benites Vinueza in 1971. After completing the quadrennium started by Benites Vinueza, Ambassador Gros Espiell was re-elected as Secretary General for another four-year period.
During his functions as Secretary General, he wrote two books on the Treaty of Tlatelolco: "About the Treaty of Tlatelolco and the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America" (1973) and "The Law of Treaties and the Treaty of Tlatelolco » (1974).
Upon finishing his duties as Secretary General of OPANAL, he served as Judge of the Administrative Tribunal of the International Labor Organization (1981-1990), as Director of the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights (1985-1989) and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay (1990-1992), among other positions.
Ambassador Gros Espeill passed away on November 30, 2009. On April 8, 2010, a Special Session of the Council was held in honor of Dr. Gros Espeill where the resolution was adopted C/Res.53, which pays tribute to him for his outstanding performance as Secretary General, as well as for his relevant academic work on the issue of nuclear disarmament, particularly in relation to the Treaty of Tlatelolco and the development of OPANAL.
Ambassador Leopoldo Benites Vinueza (DEP)
Secretary General (1971)
Leopoldo Benites Vinueza was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on October 17, 1905. He graduated from the University of Guayaquil, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences. He obtained an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Montevideo, Uruguay.
On January 1, 1971, Ambassador Benites Vinueza became the first Secretary General of OPANAL. However, in September 1971 he resigned as Secretary General after being nominated by his Government as a candidate for the Presidency of the United Nations General Assembly.
Among his many diplomatic positions, he stood out as Extraordinary Ambassador of the Republic of Ecuador in Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York.
On repeated occasions he served as Head of the Ecuadorian Delegation to the United Nations General Assembly. In 1965, he served as President of the Ecuadorian Delegation in the Preparatory Meeting for the Denuclearization of Latin America (REUPRAL), in the Preparatory Commission for the Denuclearization of Latin America (COPREDAL) and in the Preliminary Meeting for the Constitution of the Organization for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America (REOPANAL). Ambassador Benites Vinueza was one of the most prominent Latin American diplomats who negotiated the Treaty of Tlatelolco.
Ambassador Leopoldo Benites Vinueza died in 1996. In 1997, during its XI Extraordinary Session to commemorate the XXX Anniversary of the Treaty of Tlatelolco, the General Conference of OPANAL paid a posthumous tribute to Ambassador Benites Vinueza by adopting the Resolution 348 (E-XI).
Deputy and Acting General Secretaries
Ambassador Perla Carvalho
Deputy Secretary General (2008 – 2009)
Ambassador Perla Carvalho joined the Mexican Foreign Service in 1973.
During the XX Ordinary Period of Sessions, the General Conference of OPANAL resolved, through Resolution CG/Res.496 (XX), appoint Ambassador Perla Carvalho as Deputy Secretary General, a position she held from January 1, 2008 to November 26, 2009.
In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United Mexican States, he held the positions of Head of the Department of America from 1973 to 1978; she was Deputy Director of Specialized Organizations of the United Nations from 1980 to 1981; She was Director General for the United Nations System from 1996 to 1998. Abroad, she was a commissioner in the Mexican Embassies in Yugoslavia, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Portugal. She later served as Alternate Representative of Mexico to FAO, IFAD, WFP and UNIDROIT.
He was Alternate Representative of Mexico to the Conference on Disarmament based in Geneva (1989 – 1996), a period during which he participated in the negotiations of the Convention for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
He was Alternate Permanent Representative of Mexico to International Organizations based in Geneva (1999 – 2001) and Member, in a personal capacity, of the Disarmament Advisory Board of the Secretary General of the United Nations (2003 – 2007).
She served as Diplomatic Advisor to the Presidency of the Republic from 2002 to 2003. Subsequently, she was Ambassador of Mexico to the Eastern Republic of Uruguay and Permanent Representative to the Latin American Integration Association (2004-2007).
Ambassador Antonio González de León (DEP)
Deputy Secretary General (1971 – 1976)
Antonio González de León Quintanilla was born in Mexico City on December 11, 1930. He completed his first university studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He entered the Mexican Foreign Service by competitive examination in 1955. He obtained the Diploma in International Affairs from the University of London in 1971.
On October 15, 1971, he replaced Ambassador Leopoldo Benites Vinueza, who resigned his position as Secretary General of OPANAL when he was nominated by his government to occupy the presidency of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
Ambassador González de León served as Deputy Secretary General of OPANAL until January 1976. On January 29, 1976, the Council of OPANAL adopted the Resolution C/Res.12, through which he recognized the work of Ambassador González de León as Deputy Secretary General of the Agency.
Ambassador Carlos Peón del Valle (DEP)
Acting Secretary General (1969 – 1970)
Carlos Peón del Valle was born in Mexico City on May 22, 1910. He studied Jurisprudence at the universities of Georgetown, Caracas, Santiago de Chile and at the Autonomous University of Mexico. He entered the Diplomatic Corps of Mexico at the age of 21.
During his career, he held different positions and was assigned to several diplomatic missions in America and Europe. In 1960 he was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Denmark. Later, in 1962, Ambassador Peón del Valle was appointed Director in Chief of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico.
Ambassador Peón del Valle was elected Secretary General of the Preliminary Meeting for the Denuclearization of Latin America (REUPRAL) in 1964. Later, in 1965, he was appointed to the same position by the Preparatory Commission for the Denuclearization of Latin America (COPREDAL). ), assignment that lasted two years.
In June 1969, he was elected to serve as Secretary General of the Preliminary Meeting for the Constitution of the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America (OPANAL). That same year, the First Regular Session of the General Conference of OPANAL took place, where he was elected as Interim Secretary General, a position he held from September 8, 1969 to January 1, 1971, until Ambassador Leopoldo Benites Vinueza He held the position of Secretary General.
Ambassador Peón del Valle died in 1978.