From anonymity to having your own entry in Viquipèdia, the virtual encyclopedia in Catalan, in just a few minutes. The name of Francisco Humberto Galindo Vélez has ascended to the Spanish political firmament when it was revealed that this Salvadoran diplomat will be the verifier of the negotiation process between the PSOE and Junts launched in Geneva, an emblem of the proverbial Swiss neutrality.
Born in 1955 in San Salvador, Galindo has a long career as an ambassador for his country – he has been in France and Colombia, from where he attended the peace process that began in 2012 between the government and the FARC guerrilla that culminated in a treaty in 2016–, in which he has stood out for his work in defense of refugees.
With a degree in legal sciences and a doctorate from the University Institute of Higher International Studies in Geneva, among other academic degrees completed at universities in Boston, New York and Paris, Galindo's work has focused on the conception of refugee rights as part of of human rights, and he has dedicated a good number of conferences and specialized articles to it.
Likewise, this veteran Salvadoran diplomat has been a representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in different countries around the world, such as, in addition to France and Colombia, Mexico and Egypt. He also worked for this UN agency as deputy for the Central American region and in Algeria, Turkey, Djibouti – in the troubled Horn of Africa – and Tajikistan, in Central Asia.
This extensive diplomatic career has culminated, at the age of 68, with his appointment as the international verifier of the negotiations between the party of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the party led by former President Carles Puigdemont, given the existing distrust between both.
A student of French language and civilization, it is assumed that Galindo will speak in his native Spanish at the Geneva meetings, in which he will record the progress. And originally from a country like El Salvador, which until 1992 suffered a bloody civil war between the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) and the government that began in 1979, he will not see it as impossible for the agreement in question to be close.
