President Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera's Keynote Address
Professor, diplomat and politician, Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera served as president of Costa Rica from 2014-2018.
In 1984, he began his service in the Foreign Ministry, leading Costa Rican delegations to the United Nations, the Organization of American States and the European Union. He was the country’s Ambassador for Central American Affairs and, for two decades held the office of Secretary General of the governing National Liberation Party (PLN).
In 1987 he played a key role in drafting the Esquipulas II Accords aimed at ridding the region of its frequent civil wars and signed by Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Costa Rica's then-President Oscar Arias Sanchez was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the accord.
In 2005 Solis left the PLN to join the Citizen Action Party (PAC).
Solís is a graduate of the University of Costa Rica and has a master’s degree in political science and sociology from Tulane University. With 30 years as an educator, he has also taught at the University of Michigan, and in 1999 was a Fulbright Scholar at FIU. He has published more than 10 books and dozens of articles for professional journals.
Visit his personal website.
