Alfonso Garcia Robles

José Alfonso Eufemio Nicolás de Jesús García Robles (Zamora, Michoacán, Mexico, March 20, 1911 - Mexico City, September 2, 1991) was a Mexican diplomat who was secretary of Foreign Relations between 1975 and 1976. He was president of the Preparatory Commission for the Denuclearization of Latin America, whose work culminated in the signing of the Treaty of Tlatelolco on February 14, 1967. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982 together with Sweden's Alva Reimer Myrdal, ""for her work for disarmament and nuclear and weapon-free zones." She also played a central role in promoting general disarmament for the UN General Assembly in 1978 and 1982.. He entered El Colegio Nacional on July 20, 1972. Also, during his diplomatic career he was Mexico's ambassador to Brazil and the United Nations.

Biography

Alfonso García Robles, was born in Zamora, Michoacán, Mexico on March 20, 1911.

Studies

He was a student at a renowned Jesuit college, the Institute of Sciences, in Guadalajara. He studied Law, graduating from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and doing postgraduate studies at the Institute of Higher International Studies, which is currently part of the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas, in 1936 and at the Academy of International Law in The Hague. in 1938. It was named the "Needle" since in 1937 he created a campaign to save the needlefish.

In the Mexican Foreign Service

He joined his country's foreign service in 1939 as third secretary of the Mexican Embassy in Sweden.

He was transferred to Mexico in 1941 to join the Ministry of Foreign Relations (SRE), where he remained for five years as Deputy Director of Political Affairs of the Diplomatic Service.

Later, with the position of Secretary of International Affairs of the National Peace Planning Commission, he collaborated in the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco in 1945, where the legal foundations of the Organization were laid of the United Nations (UN).

United Nations Official

From 1946 to 1956 he lived in New York City, working for the UN as head of the Political Division of the Security Council Affairs Department.

He was the UN representative at the Pan-American Conference in Bogotá (1948), where the Charter of the Organization of American States was signed.

In 1950, he married Juana María Szyszlo, a young Peruvian, a UN official, with whom he would have two children.

Return to the Mexican Foreign Service

From 1958 to 1960 he was chief director for European, Asian and International Organization Affairs at the SRE. At this time he dealt with the Law of the Sea contributing to the Geneva conferences.

From 1962 to 1964 he held the post of ambassador to Brazil.

From 1964 to 1970 he was undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Treaty of Tlatelolco

As a result of the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Adolfo López Mateos, "who extended Mexico's diplomatic networks beyond their traditional boundaries and devoted significant efforts to fostering Latin American integration", He promoted denuclearization in the region: the idea was to ensure the prohibition of nuclear weapons and that this part of the world was not involved in any conflict between the great rival powers.

García Robles played a crucial role in launching and implementing the agreement, coming to be nicknamed "the father of the Tlatelolco agreement." The negotiations were led by García Robles along with two other prominent Mexican diplomats:

"The minutes of the negotiations reveal huge names: Alfonso García Robles, distinguished jurist and spirit of the treaty, who served as secretary of foreign affairs of Mexico, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982 for the success of the treaty. His delegation had great names such as Jorge Castañeda and Álvarez de la Rosa, an international jurist who would later also occupy the title of Foreign Affairs, and Ismael Moreno Pino, a great promoter of multilateralism in Mexico and ambassador to the main European capitals and the United Nations" - Alejandro Alday González, Director General of the Matías Romero Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Delegations from other countries included similarly prominent diplomats: José Sette Câmara, representative of Brazil, Alberto Sepúlveda Contreras, representative of Chile, Leopoldo Benítez, representative of Ecuador, and even Juan Natalicio González, former president of Paraguay.

The United Nations General Assembly authorized COPREDAL on November 27, 1963. The Preliminary Meeting on the Denuclearization of Latin America (REUPRAL) created the Preparatory Commission for the Denuclearization of Latin America (COPREDAL). Between 1964 and 1967, there were four COPREDAL sessions held in Mexico City.

Alfonso García Robles, then Undersecretary of Foreign Relations, headed the Mexican delegation but was appointed president of COPREDAL, for which reason Ambassador Ismael Moreno Pino, head of the Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs, had to assume the representation of the interests of Mexico at the conference.

As president of COPREDAL, he directed the meetings that were held in Mexico City beginning in 1964 and that, after years of patient negotiation, concluded with the signing on February 14, 1967 of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America, known as the Treaty of Tlatelolco. "Its historical significance is unquestionable. From its intellectual conception to its signature, distinguished minds from the American continent participated in its formulation, faithfully representing a generation anguished by the horrors of two world wars and the threat of a third, which it encountered in the Cuban missile crisis., in 1962, its most delicate moment–, which incessantly sought peace and harmony among nations, protected by the incipient multilateral system of the League of Nations."

Peak of his diplomatic career

From 1971 to 1975 he was Mexico's ambassador to the United Nations and chaired the Group of 77.

He entered El Colegio Nacional on April 4, 1972, with the lecture "Disarmament and the United Nations", which was presented by Dr. Antonio Gómez Robledo.

Between 1975 and 1976 he was chancellor of Mexico.

Since 1977 he was the permanent representative of Mexico to the United Nations Committee on Disarmament in Geneva, Switzerland.

In 1978 he was president of the Mexican delegation at the First Special Session on Disarmament of the UN General Assembly and was one of those responsible for the adoption of "the final document".

Acknowledgments and Nobel Prize

In 1982, the President of the Republic, José López Portillo, appointed him ambassador emeritus, an honor reserved for ten ambassadors who have rendered outstanding service to the republic in foreign policy matters.

In September 1982, he was awarded the Decoration of the Mexican Foreign Service.

In October 1982, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "his magnificent work in the United Nations disarmament negotiations," a distinction he shared with the Swedish diplomat and writer Alva Reimer Myrdal.

Death

Died on September 2, 1991 in Mexico City. He was buried in the Spanish Pantheon, located in the Miguel Hidalgo mayor's office.

After his death

García Robles' personal archive and library of 1,100 volumes were donated by his widow to the University of Virginia in the United States in 1998.

On April 24, 2003, his name was unveiled written in gold letters on one of the walls of the San Lázaro Legislative Palace, seat of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies.

Acknowledgment

During the celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of the Law School of La Salle University, the bust that shows that efforts and great sacrifices obtain their great rewards was unveiled in his honor.

Posts

• Le Panaméricanisme et la Politique de Bon Voisinage (Paris, 1938).
• Premier Congres d ́études Internationales (1938).
• La Question du Pétrole au Mexique et le Droit International (1939).
• The Calvo clause before international law (1939).
• The post-war world (2 vols., 1946).
• The San Francisco conference and his work (1946).
• International Policy of Mexico (1946).
• The Denuclearization of Latin America (1965).
• The width of the territorial sea (1966).
• The Treaty of Tlatelolco. Genesis, scope and purpose of the proscription of nuclear weapons in Latin America (1967).
• Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America.