Bill Richardson, a veteran Democratic politician and former US ambassador to the UN who later spent decades negotiating the release of Americans detained around the world, has died at the age on 75, his associates said on Saturday.
Richardson, who also served as governor of New Mexico and the US secretary of energy, passed away peacefully in his sleep on Friday night, the Richardson Center for Global Engagement said in a statement.
Richardson was one of the highest-profile Latinos in the US political world.
Photo: AFP
He made his name as the “Indiana Jones” of US diplomacy and was famed for daring head-to-head encounters with strongmen leaders on the US pariah list, including late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, late Cuban president Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
“He’d meet with anyone, fly anywhere, do whatever it took,” US President Joe Biden said in a statement, recalling Richardson’s efforts “to free Americans held in some of the most dangerous places on Earth.”
“American pilots captured by North Korea, American workers held by Saddam Hussein, Red Cross workers imprisoned by Sudanese rebels — these are just some of the dozens of people that Bill helped bring home,” Biden said.
Most recently Richardson was involved in efforts that led to the release of US basketball star Brittney Griner in December last year from a Russian prison after she was convicted of a drug offense.
“He lived his entire life in the service of others — including both his time in government and his subsequent career helping to free people held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad,” the Richardson Center said. “There was no person that Governor Richardson would not speak with if it held the promise of returning a person to freedom.”
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