José María Argueta, the ambassador and permanent representative of Guatemala to the Organization of American States (OAS), has a long history of government service. Former ambassador to Japan and Peru, he was Guatemalas first civilian national security advisor under President Ramiro de Leon Carpio and secretary of strategic intelligence during President Otto Pérez Molinas first two years in office.
He coauthored and implemented both the widely recognized ESTNA Methodology, a conflict resolution method that was instrumental in the peace processes of Guatemala and El Salvador, and the Crisis Committee, designed to institutionalize the presidential decision-making process. As ambassador to Japan, he coauthored the Central America-Japan Initiative, which resulted in the 2005 Tokyo Declaration, and as ambassador to Peru, he helped negotiate the release of hostages at the Japanese Embassy in 1996.
He has served as a consultant to the Inter-American Development Bank, Harvard Universitys Center for Conflict Resolution, and the National Endowment of Democracy and sits on the International Advisory Board of Beyond Conflict, which assists leaders in divided societies struggling with conflict. Previously, he was a scholar/practitioner in residence at Tufts Universitys Institute for Global Leadership.
The author of The Enlightened Dissent Methodology: A Leadership Methodology for Peace Building (2008), Argueta has written extensively on the root causes of social conflict.
I had a wonderful working and personal relationship with José for decades. He is known affectionately as “Chema” to his friends. Charismatic and courageous, he created our “Poverty and Power” research initiative at the Institute. We initially called it “Oligarchy and Corruption”, until we quickly realized how it would endanger both the students researching conflict areas and inequalities, and their interviewees. Chema was an INSPIRE fellow, a mentor for students of all Institute projects. He particularly participated in our “Iraq: Moving Forward” conference. He is a wonderful, compassionate teacher and the quintessential mentor.