Charting A Course

Venezuela's new ambassador has a degree in remote perception

By Christina Leadlay

The Embassy of Venezuela has been without a proper head of mission for a few months. After Jorge E. Osorio Garcia wrapped up his four years as Venezuela's ambassador to Canada, departing on Dec. 18, 2004, Chargé d'Affaires Margarita Ayello took over the mission. Now, she hands over the duties to Jesús Arnaldo Pérez, who arrived in Ottawa on May 18, and is expected to present his credentials to Governor General Adrienne Clarkson on May 27 at Rideau Hall.

While Mr. Perez's most recent experiences have been in international affairs and diplomacy, he has had an extensive career in the realm of geography. Mr. Perez went to Europe for his post-secondary studies, taking geography at the University of Toulouse II in France. After receiving his Bachelor's degree in 1982, Mr. Perez then enrolled at the University of Bordeaux III where he did a Master's degree in tropical geography, ecology and development in 1983. During this time, he worked as Assistant Professor of Spanish at a high school in France, maintaining and sharing his native language. In 1985, Mr. Perez became involved with the French National Centre of Spacial Studies and Paris' National School of Geographic Science where he was kept busy interpreting satellite images. That same year he gained a second Master's degree, this time in Remote Perception from the University of Paris. Mr. Perez returned to Venezuela in 1986 and began working at the Barinas Estate's soil laboratory. He then worked as a technical translator specializing in remote perception, and went on to serve as a researcher at the Institute of the Vegetation International Map, part of France's National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). By 1990, he was conducting research at the CNRS's Center of Ecology of Renewable Resources. Two years later, Mr. Perez found himself in Spain as an invited professor at the University of Alcalá de Henares in Madrid. Interestingly, he was simultaneously working on his Ph.D. in rural development at the University of Toulouse II, which he completed in 1994. But his time in academia did not end there. Mr. Perez remained at the University of Toulouse II, serving as a contracted professor at not only his alma mater, but also at the University of Toulouse I, III and the Superior School of Agriculture, also in Toulouse from 1994 to 1996, taking time in the summer of 1995 to complete a course in space law at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. In 1996, Mr. Perez was selected for the audition "Comisión de Especialestas" at the Geography Department at University of Paul Valery de Montpellier. That same year, he returned to his homeland where he worked as an environmental advisor in the oil exploration field from 1996 to 1998. Throughout his career in geography, Mr.Perez attended numerous international conferences, mainly in remote perception, but also in areas including tele-detection and development of the Third World, which was held in Venezuela in 1993. He also participated in the fourth Inter-American Congress on the Environment, among other science-related symposia and congresses. From there, Mr. Perez redirected his career from academics to public service. In 1999, he was appointed Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources of Venezuela under newly-elected President Hugo Chavez. He remained in that post for one year, before being appointed as Venezuela's ambassador to Algeria in 2000. After a two-year term, Mr. Perez returned to France where he had done so much work as a geographer, though now he was head of mission at the Embassy of Venezuela in Paris. In Feb. 2004, Mr. Perez was summoned home where he took over as Minister of External Affairs for nine months. This was his most recent position before being appointed to his third diplomatic posting, as Venezuela's ambassador to Canada.