H.E. Francisco Villagrán de León
Ambassador of Guatemala to the United States of America

Francisco Villagrán de León is a career diplomat with more than 25 years in the Guatemalan foreign service. He has served as vice minister of foreign affairs and as ambassador to the United Nations, the Organization of American States, Canada, Germany and Norway. In addition to his diplomatic posts, he has held fellowships at the U.S. Institute of Peace and the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, D.C., and has served as a senior fellow and member of the board of the Center for the Defense of the Constitution in Guatemala City.

As vice minister of foreign affairs, Ambassador Villagrán took part in the Contadora negotiations, which sought a peaceful resolution to the Central American conflicts of the 1980s. During his first tour as ambassador to the OAS (1987-88), he was a leading advocate of direct OAS involvement in democratic development, introducing resolutions and concepts for discussion in the Permanent Council to help bring the issue to the fore and lay the groundwork for such a role.

As ambassador to the United Nations (1988-91), he negotiated the normalization of diplomatic relations between Guatemala and Russia, and established diplomatic relations with Eastern European and Caribbean countries. In 1992, he held a fellowship at the U.S. Institute of Peace, where he analyzed the future of the Inter-American System and the OAS’s new role in the areas of democratization and regional security.

As ambassador to Canada (1994-98), he negotiated the reestablishment of government-to-government development cooperation, helped to expand Canadian trade and investment in Guatemala, and spearheaded the negotiation of bilateral investment protection and air transportation agreements. As ambassador to Norway and Denmark (1998-2000), he secured increased bilateral development cooperation to support the implementation of the Guatemalan peace accords.

In 2001, he took a fellowship at the National Endowment for Democracy, where he analyzed the benefits of trade agreements on institutional development in transitional democracies. In 2004, he was appointed to a second term at the OAS, where he was elected chairman of the Juridical and Political Affairs Committee and chairman of the Budget Committee. He successfully negotiated an increase in the OAS’s budget and other agreements to improve the financial and administrative status of the organization.

In March 2008, he was named Guatemalan ambassador to the United States by the newly elected government of Álvaro Colom.

Ambassador Villagrán holds a master’s degree in international affairs from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and an undergraduate degree in law and social sciences from the Universidad Rafael Landívar in Guatemala City. He is married to Donna Eberwine-Villagrán and has a daughter, Anna Beatriz, 13.

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