Montevideo.

• Author: Williams, J.Edgar
• Position: Montevideo, Uruguay

Note from the editor: A long time contributor looks back to the mid-1960s and remembers a Uruguayan diplomat who served his nation and the world community with distinction.--Ed.

I was stationed at the U.S. Embassy at Montevideo, Uruguay, from mid-1963 through early 1966. As a young bachelor diplomat, I got around a lot and met many interesting people. I started dating a lovely young lady from a well-known family with the double surname Jimenez de Arechaga. She had several older brothers whom I got to know casually. I didn't spend much time with them. She had other interesting relatives, including the then-Minister of Agriculture. I was particularly glad to have contact with him, because my job in the Embassy centered on international trade, and agriculture was a large element of that trade. I was the only Embassy officer who had direct access to him. (This greatly annoyed some of my Embassy colleagues.) One of my girl friend's brothers - Eduardo - was a very interesting person. He was well thought of by the American business community because he had very competently represented several major American corporations. He was also a Professor of International Law at the University of Montevideo Law School. He also had other distinctions which I did not learn about until later, such as having been a member of the UN Secretariat and a member of Uruguay's delegation to the UN General Assembly.

The Ambassador and other senior Embassy officers knew that I was dating Eduardo's sister, since I took her to several Embassy receptions. In fact, we weren't just dating. After a couple of months, it was made clear to me that, if we were to continue seeing each other, we would have to at least semi-formalize our relationship. We would have to become novios - or engaged to be engaged. So I asked her to be my novia and she consented. One day, the Ambassador summoned me to his office and...