Rosalía Arteaga
Secretary-General, Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization;
former President and former Vice President, Republic of Ecuador
A central figure in the affairs of Ecuador for many years,
Rosalía Arteaga Serrano was vice president in 1996-97 and served briefly
as the country’s president during a constitutional crisis in February 1997.
Before that she held a number of important government positions, such as
minister of education, culture, and sports; president of the National Council
of Development; and several other prominent posts in the Ministry of Education and
Culture and other areas. She was also a councilwoman in her native city of Cuenca
in 1986-88.
Today, as secretary-general of the Brazil-based Amazon
Cooperation Treaty Organization, she plays a major role in helping to
restore the Amazon region and rescue it from the threat of environmental
disaster. She works at high levels with the governments of all the countries
in the region, whose environmental significance for the entire world is
unique. “We are all on the same planet and need to work together,” she said.
“Events like the recent tsunami in Asia and the El Niño phenomenon have shown
that our world is intertwined.”
A journalist and a lawyer, Ms. Arteaga has written several
books and publishes articles and columns regularly in newspapers, magazines,
and journals.
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