Javier Rupérez

Francisco Javier Rupérez Rubio, a Spanish politician, diplomat and writer, was born in Madrid on April 24, 1941. He holds degrees in law (1962) and journalism (1975) from the Complutense University of Madrid. Since 2006 he has held the rank of full Ambassador within the Spanish Diplomatic Service, which he joined in 1967.

Rupérez is the brother of the late Spanish diplomat Ignacio Rupérez, who served as Ambassador to Iraq from 2005 to 2008.

Already active in politics in his university years as a member of the clandestine Christian Democratic opposition to General Franco, he was one of the founders, in 1962, of the monthly magazine Cuadernos para el Diálogo, edited by Joaquín Ruiz-Giménez, where he wrote regularly about foreign policy, cinema and theatre. After Franco's death in 1975 he joined the centrist party Unión de Centro Democrático (UCD) led by Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez, of which Rupérez was Secretary for Foreign Relations and member of the Executive Committee. In 1982 he joined the Partido Demócrata Popular (PDP), later called Democracia Cristiana(DC), of which he was elected Vice President and later (1988) President. He was instrumental in facilitating the merging of the PDP/DC party with other parties to form the new Partido Popular (PP), led by the future Prime Minister (1996–2004) José María Aznar. He was Vice President of the party and member of its leadership committee.

As a diplomat he has been posted to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (1967–1969), Warsaw, Poland (1969–1972), Helsinki, Finland (1972–1973) and Geneva, Switzerland (1973–1975). Between 1976 and 1977 he was Chief of Staff to the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was Ambassador of Spain to the Madrid session of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (1980–1982), Ambassador of Spain to NATO (1982–1983) and Ambassador of Spain to the United States of America (2000–2004). He was Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations in New York between 2004 and 2007 as Executive Director of the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee. He has been living in Chicago since 2007 as Consul General of Spain to the US Midwest.

...
Wikipedia