At the age of 75, Bill Richardson, the former US diplomat, congressman, secretary of energy and governor of the state of New Mexico, who made a name for himself on the world stage by freeing scores of Americans and others detained by various autocratic governments, has died. This was reported by the news agency with reference to the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, founded by Richardson, who is known as a “specialist in complex missions”.
Richardson, who ran unsuccessfully to become the first Hispanic president of the United States in 2008, died in his sleep at his summer home in Chatham, Massachusetts, Richardson Center Vice President Mickey Bergman said in a statement.
“The world has lost an advocate for those unjustly detained abroad, and I have lost a mentor and a good friend,” Bergman said.
Richardson served as a Democrat in the US House of Representatives from 1982 to 1996, then as US Ambassador to the UN and Secretary of Energy, both under President Bill Clinton. Richardson was later elected governor of New Mexico, where he served from 2003 to 2011.
Through his negotiating skills and personal warmth, both as an official representative of the United States and as an independent diplomat on private humanitarian missions, he succeeded in securing the release of many people detained in countries such as Russia, North Korea, Burma, Sudan, Iraq, Iran, and Cuba.
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