Sérgio Corrêa da Costa

Sérgio Corrêa da Costa entered the diplomatic service in 1939 and combined law, economic study, and historical writing with a long succession of overseas assignments. He served in Washington as a junior diplomat in 1946–1948 and studied at the University of California, Los Angeles, while working at the Brazilian consulate. His early career also included Buenos Aires, Rome, and Brazil’s United Nations delegation. ¹

After leading embassies in Ottawa and London, Corrêa da Costa served as Brazil’s permanent representative to the United Nations from 1975 to 1983 and ambassador in Washington from 1983 to 1986. At home he had been the foreign ministry’s secretary-general and acting foreign minister; his multilateral work included disarmament negotiations in Geneva. ¹

His published work ranged from Brazilian diplomatic history to the movement of words between languages. Elected to the Brazilian Academy of Letters in 1983, he continued writing after retirement. His study Mots sans frontières appeared in 2000, five years before his death in Rio de Janeiro. ¹