A Tribute to Aguilar Zínser

By Hon. David Kilgour
Embassy Magazine
June 15th, 2005

Señor Aguilar Zínser, who recently died at age 55 in a car accident near Mexico City, probably achieved as much as anyone in the three nations of North America to combat corruption, to build representative democracy at home and to strengthen the United Nations.

Following his death, Kofi Annan said that he "served his country with dedication, wit and independence of spirit at a critical time for the multilateral system." The UN Secretary General was referring to his leadership on the Security Council during 2003, when as Mexico's permanent representative he played a key leadership role in blocking U.S.-backed resolutions seeking UN approval to invade Iraq.

Aguilar Zínser came by his independent spirit naturally as a grandson of Mexico's first environmentalist. He obtained a master's degree from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and in the 1970s became disillusioned with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Later, as an independent in the lower house of Congress, his work as a committee chair against corruption attracted death threats from three different groups. Nothing would silence him.

During this time, Aguilar Zínser and I both happened to attend a human rights conference outside of Mexico City. People in the small community kept coming up to encourage him. He'd become a national hero to many.

By 1997, Aguilar Zínser, who at various points during his public life supported three different political parties, was representing the Green party in Mexico's Senate when he visited Canada. His analysis of his country's politics to some Canadian MPs included this observation: "Our major problem today is that most legislators of the governing party [PRI] do not believe in it."

When Vicente Fox won the presidency in 2000, breaking the PRI's 71-year hold on the office, Aguilar Zínser campaigned at his side often. When he became national security advisor afterwards, he attempted to make the environment a security issue. Fox soon nominated him to represent Mexico at the UN.

In that role, Aguilar Zínser quickly caused difficulty for Fox with President Bush, which was compounded when in late 2003 he accused the U.S. of treating Mexico not as a partner but as "a backyard." When forced to resign as Mexico's representative at the UN, he admitted that he was "a

diplomat who is not very diplomatic," adding that he was also "an independent, principled man without prejudice."

Aguilar Zínser was also a giant among all of us on this continent and beyond, who fought without fear all his life for the dignity of human beings everywhere.

"Que su alma descanse en paz."
David Kilgour, M.P.

-- Mr. Kilgour is the independent member of Parliament for Edmonton-Beaumont. He served with Aquilar Zínser for several years as co-director of an International Human Rights Foundation. 

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