Remembering Bill Richardson | Guatemala's Stunning Election | PEPfAR's Uncertain Future
“Bad people like him”
You have probably seen the news that Bill Richardson passed away on September 1 at the age of 75. He was a long-serving member of congress and governor of New Mexico, and former Secretary of Energy and US Ambassador to the United Nations. But his most lasting impact on international affairs was his freelance work as an international hostage negotiator. As a private citizen he’d travel to places like North Korea or Burma and sit face-to-face with some of the world’s nastiest dictators to secure the release of a foreigner wrongfully detained. He was a natural politician and had the unique ability to make personal connections awful dictators like Omar al Bashir or Saddam Hussein — and used that skill to good effect. (Both released hostages after meeting with Richardson.) “Bad people like him,” Bill Clinton once quipped.
In 2015, Bill Richardson joined me on the podcast for a long conversation about his work as a freelance diplomat who specialized in international hostage negotiations. At one point the conversation turned to the kinds of somewhat inappropriate jokes he’d crack as part of a deliberate negotiating strategy.
Bill Richardson: Well, when you enter negotiations with many of these dictators, they are stone faced. They they want to intimidate you. They want to get the upper hand. And sometimes injecting a little humor helps. Like in Egypt I met some members of the Mubarak regime and said, “All right! So is this where all the torture took place?! Where you took people's fingernails out?!” And, you know, there's a dead silence, but then they start laughing.
Mark Leon Goldberg: You said that to Omar Suleiman, right? The feared and famed right hand man of Mubarak.
Bill Richardson: Yeah, he kind of flinched at first, but then he started laughing. I did the same with a leader of a rebel group in the Sudan. I did the same with Fidel Castro.
I’ve moved that episode out from behind the paywall in tribute to Bill Richardson’s passing. The interview will be published in the coming days. You can go here to get it as soon as it comes out. Probably Wednesday night. Rest in Peace, Governor Richardson.
The Astonishing Election of Bernardo Arévalo Threatens a Corrupt Political Establishment
On August 20th a former academic, diplomat and anti-corruption crusader Bernardo Arévalo stunned the world with a landslide victory in Guatemala's presidential election. Arévalo won with over 60% of the vote, besting a former first lady who represented Guatemala's long dominant conservative -- and corrupt -- political establishment.
This was a truly unexpected result that shocked Arevalo’s supporters and foes alike. Now, the corrupt establishment is fighting back and taking measures to prevent Arévalo from wielding power in office and enacting meaningful change.
I’m joined in today’s podcast interview by Ivan Briscoe, Program Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Crisis Group. We kick off with a discussion of Arévalo’s fascinating personal biography — then turn to a longer conversation about how his unique brand of center-left politics, combined with a sharp focus on anti-corruption, makes him such a threat to Guatemala’s predacious incumbent political elite. That episode is freely available here. It’s a great chat about Central American politics — I learned a lot from it and suspect you will as well.
Look Ahead: Next week, I’ll be releasing my interview with Gayle Smith, former head of USAID and current CEO of the One Campaign. We discuss the uncertain future of PEPfAR — the massively successful US foreign aid program to combat HIV/AIDS that is suddenly in GOP crosshairs. You can go here to get it as soon as it comes out.
As always, it you have suggestions of people I should interview or topics I should cover please get in touch. And of course, please consider supporting our unique kind of journalism with your upgraded subscription. We rely on this community to support our work.
Thank you!
— Mark Leon Goldberg
Editor-in-Chief