The European Courier | Democracy in Venezuela Blog – by Diego E. Arria

is a Venezuelan diplomat and politician. Founding Editor of El Diario de Caracas, Governor of Caracas, Congressman and Minister of Information and Tourism. He served as the Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. He also served as Ambassador of Venezuela to the United Nations, as well as President of the UN Security Council where he initiated a modality that is named after him: the Arria Formula. Ambassador Arria has served on the board of the International Crisis Group (he is now a Senior Adviser), in the International Peace Institute, as a Diplomatic Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City and Visiting Scholar at Columbia University. At present he is on the board of the Institute of the Americas at the University of California, the United Nations Association of the United States, the Museum of Art and Design of New York, on the Advisory Board of the Center for International Policy and Ethics of Brandeis University, and the School of International Service of American University in DC.