Carlos José Pareja Ríos

Carlos José Pareja Ríos trained in diplomacy and law and first worked in Washington as a political counsellor in 1984–1990. Later assignments took him to Chile and to the foreign ministry’s South American directorate. In the late 1990s he worked on Peru–Ecuador border integration and led negotiations with Chile over outstanding obligations under the 1929 boundary treaty. Those talks produced the November 1999 Act of Execution and arrangements for Peruvian port facilities at Arica. ¹

Pareja subsequently served as ambassador to Spain, Switzerland, and Chile. His Santiago posting, in 2009–2014, coincided with Peru’s maritime boundary litigation before the International Court of Justice. Back in Lima, he directed policy for the Americas and then for Africa, the Middle East, and the Gulf before returning to Washington as ambassador in 2016. ¹

In a December 2018 interview reviewing his Washington work, Pareja described efforts to promote investment, contacts with Congress and the Trump administration, and the embassy’s cultural programme. He highlighted American assistance following the 2017 coastal El Niño disaster and U.S. participation in the 2018 Summit of the Americas in Lima. He also described a regularly changing embassy gallery, supported by his wife Consuelo Salinas’s work with Peruvian artists. ²

Pareja concluded the Washington mission at the end of 2018 and retired from career service in 2019. He returned to public office on 23 April 2026, when he was sworn in as foreign minister after Hugo de Zela’s resignation. ^{2, 3}