Bill Richardson, globe-trotting US diplomat dies

AFP :
Bill Richardson, a veteran Democratic politician and former US ambassador to the United Nations who later spent decades negotiating the release of Americans detained around the world, has died at age 75, his associates said Saturday.

Richardson, who also served as governor of New Mexico and the US energy secretary, passed away peacefully in his sleep on Friday night, the Richardson Center for Global Engagement said in a statement.

Richardson was one of the highest-profile Latinos in the US political world.

He made his name as the “Indiana Jones” of US diplomacy and was famed for daring head-to-head encounters with strongmen leaders on the US pariah list, including Iraq’s late president Saddam Hussein, Cuba’s late leader Fidel Castro, and Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.

“He’d meet with anyone, fly anywhere, do whatever it took,” President Joe Biden said in a statement, recalling Richardson’s efforts “to free Americans held in some of the most dangerous places on Earth.”

“American pilots captured by North Korea, American workers held by Saddam Hussein, Red Cross workers imprisoned by Sudanese rebels-these are just some of the dozens of people that Bill helped bring home,” Biden said.

Most recently Richardson was involved in efforts that led to the release of US basketball star Brittney Griner in December from a Russian prison after she was convicted of a drug offense.

The statement from the Richardson Center said, “He lived his entire life in the service of others-including both his time in government and his subsequent career helping to free people held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad.”