Washington, May 27, 2015.- The former Foreign Minister of Uruguay Luis Almagro Lemes today took office as Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) during a meeting of the Permanent Council at the headquarters of the Organization in Washington, DC.

The Uruguayan diplomat was elected Secretary General on March 18 with 33 votes in favor, one abstention and no votes against from member states. The Chair of the Permanent Council and Permanent Representative of Trinidad and Tobago to the OAS, Neil Parsan, was in charge of welcoming the new OAS Secretary General during the inauguration.

Secretary General Almagro was elected for a period of five years from May 2015 to May 2020. He is the second Uruguayan to lead the OAS, after Jose Antonio Mora (1956-1968).

He was also preceded in office by Colombians Alberto Lleras Camargo (1948-1954) and Cesar Gaviria Trujillo (1994-2004); Chileans Carlos Dávila Espinoza (1954-1955) and José Miguel Insulza (2005-2015); Ecuador’s Galo Plaza Lasso (1968-1975); Argentina’s Alejandro Orfila (1975-1984); Brazilian João Clemente Baena Soares (1984-1994); Costa Rica’s Miguel Angel Rodriguez (2004); and United States citizen Luigi R. Einaudi (interim, 2004-2005).