Carlos Echeverri Cortés

Who was Carlos Echeverri Cortés?

Carlos Echeverri Cortés was a Colombian economist and diplomat who served as ad interim 5th Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations, and as Ambassador of Colombia to Peru and Mexico. During his ambassadorship in Peru he became an enemy of the administration of President Manuel Arturo Odría Amoretti for granting political asylum to the politician Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, an action that drove the Peruvian Government to mount a five-year struggle harassing embassy staff and personnel, and forming a military blockade around the Colombian Embassy where Haya was housed, this because Lima had refused to grant safe conduct for Haya to leave the country and Ambassador Echeverri refused to give him up.