Carlos Alfredo Bernardes

Carlos Alfredo Bernardes entered the foreign service in 1939 after legal studies in Rio de Janeiro. His early work included consular assignments in Glasgow and Lisbon and diplomatic conferences in Paris and the Americas. He spent much of the 1950s at Brazil’s United Nations mission, participating in the organization’s emergency assemblies and in international discussions of atomic energy. In 1958 he chaired the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors. ^{1, 2}

Bernardes moved to the Washington embassy in 1959 and repeatedly acted as chargé d’affaires before becoming the foreign ministry’s secretary-general. He subsequently led Brazil’s United Nations mission in 1963–1964 and represented the country on the Security Council. In September 1964 Secretary-General U Thant appointed him special representative in Cyprus, where Bernardes served during the United Nations’ effort to contain intercommunal conflict. ^{1, 2}

Back in Brazil, Bernardes chaired work to preserve historic diplomatic documents and reorganize the ministry’s historical archive in the early 1970s. He became ambassador to the Philippines in 1975 and died while holding that appointment in 1977. ¹