The Ecuadorian UN envoy who shuttled through six years of Geneva talks to frame the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan
Gorbachev decided to withdraw 'because of perestroika and diplomacy,' he later wrote in his memoir, 'reinforced by military pressure': not because of Stinger missiles alone.
Cordovez was an Ecuadorian diplomat and UN Under-Secretary-General who, as Pérez de Cuéllar's Personal Representative on Afghanistan from 1982, spent six years shuttling between the Pakistani and Afghan delegations in Geneva to broker the accords that framed the Soviet withdrawal. He entered the UN in 1963 as part of Raúl Prebisch's team that founded UNCTAD, rose to head the ECOSOC secretariat, and handled crises from the Iran hostage affair to the Iran-Iraq war. The Geneva Accords were signed on 14 April 1988; Cordovez, nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, later served as Ecuador's foreign minister and UN ambassador.
Career timeline
- 1935.11.03Born in Quito, Ecuador
- 1962Law degree with honors, University of Chile; admitted to the bar
- 1963Joined the UN; helped Raúl Prebisch found UNCTAD
- 1978UN Assistant Secretary-General for Economic and Social Matters
- 1981–1988Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs; Personal Representative of the Secretary-General on Afghanistan
- 1988.04.14Brokered the signing of the Geneva Accords, framing the Soviet withdrawal
- 1988–1992Foreign Minister of Ecuador
- 2005–2007Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the UN