Secretary-General (March 1969 - March 1974)
Born in 1911, Manuel Pérez-Guerrero began his international career in the mid 1930s with the League of Nations and held various high-level positions in the United Nations system. He was appointed Secretary-General of UNCTAD from 1969 to 1974.
In his home country Venezuela, Pérez-Guerrero is remembered as a high-level government official who helped to lay the foundations for building a modern state. He held ministerial positions in Finance, Planning, Mines and Hydrocarbons and International Economic Affairs.
He was instrumental in the establishment of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), many critical North-South and South-South negotiations, high-level conferences of the Group of 77 as well as the elaboration and adoption of the Caracas Programme of Action on ECDC.
Mr. Manuel Pérez-Guerrero died on 24 October 1985.