Javier Pérez de Cuéllar

Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, born in 1920, Peruvian diplomat and fifth secretary general of the United Nations (UN) from 1982 to 1991. Born in Lima and educated at the Catholic University there, he joined the diplomatic corps in 1944. He was raised to ambassadorial rank in 1962 and served in Switzerland and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics before becoming Peru's permanent representative to the United Nations from 1971 to 1975. He was with the UN peacekeeping mission in Cyprus from 1975 through 1977 and in 1979 became an undersecretary. In December 1981 he was elected secretary general as a compromise candidate, succeeding the Austrian diplomat Kurt Waldheim. His first term had few major accomplishments, but after winning reelection in 1986, he negotiated an end to the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) and helped free Americans and other Westerners held hostage in Lebanon. He declined to run for a third term in 1991. In 1995 Pérez de Cuéllar ran for president of Peru; he was defeated by incumbent Alberto Fujimori.