Mozart Gurgel Valente Junior

Mozart Gurgel Valente Júnior entered the diplomatic service in 1940 after studying law in Rio de Janeiro. Wartime assignments took him to Algiers, where he worked with Brazil’s representation to the French Committee of National Liberation, and then to Rome. He first served in Washington from 1949, participating in inter-American consultations before moving to Belgium and international organizations. ¹

Valente helped staff the diplomatic work surrounding Juscelino Kubitschek’s Operation Pan-America, which sought greater economic cooperation in the hemisphere. He advised Brazilian delegations to the Organization of American States and its Committee of 21, later served with UNESCO, and became foreign minister Vasco Leitão da Cunha’s chief of staff. An ambassadorship in Yugoslavia preceded his return to Washington as ambassador in 1970. ¹

His final American posting was brief. Valente was scheduled to join the Argentine and Uruguayan ambassadors for lunch with Henry Kissinger on 17 November 1970. The proposed topics included regional affairs, Chile, and trade. Kissinger’s schedule confirms that the luncheon took place, but the FRUS editors found no account of the conversation. Valente died in Arlington, Virginia, on 19 December 1970, while still in office. ^{2, 1}