Federico Urruela
Federico Urruela Prado, Guatemalan diplomat and lawyer.
He graduated from the Rafael Landivar University and served as examining magistrate for several years before joining the Guatemalan Foreign Service in 1977. He was named Ambassador in 1983 and had an illustrious diplomatic career with posts in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Geneva, Switzerland and Vienna, Austria.
He was Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva when the Guatemalan Government and the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity negotiated the Peace Accords, brokered by the UN, to end over 30 years of armed conflict. He played a significant role in the negotiations that took place in Geneva.
In Austria, he was Ambassador to Austria and also to the United Nations in Vienna, and was instrumental in strengthening ties between Guatemala and Austria, both economically and culturally. He died on January 31, 2004 and was posthumously decorated by the Government of Guatemala in February 2004, with the Order of Antonio José de Irisarri in the Grade of the Great Cross and in July 2004 the Austrian Government awarded him the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold with Sash for Services to the Republic of Austria.
