THE CENTER FOR LATIN AMERICAN I SSUES
STRATEGIC STUDIES INSTITUTE
THE ANDES: TECTONIC PARADIGM SHIFTS AND THEIR
CONSEQUENCES FOR DEMOCRACY AND MARKET-FRIENDLY
DEVELOPMENT IN THE AMERICAS
A COLLOQUIUM
SPEAKERS BIOGRAPHIES
G USTAVO R. CORONEL
Gustavo Coronel has led a distinguished career, from field geologist to founding member of the Board of
Directors for Petróleos de Venezuela (PdVSA), 1976-1979. He has more than thirty- five years of
experience in the international petroleum industry and has held leadership positions in industry, state
government, academia, and journalism.
Coronel served as President of the Port of Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, the second largest port in South
America; was Chief Operating Officer of Corporación Venezolana de Guyana, and Head of Hydrocarbon
Projects Evaluation for the Inter-American Development Bank. In 1990 he founded, and led for ten
years, Pro Calidad de Vida, a Venezuelan non-governmental organization active in anti-corruption work
in Latin America, and was the Venezuelan representative of Transparency International from 1995 to
1998. He was elected to the House of Deputies for the State of Carabobo – the most highly industrialized
state in Venezuela, representing Valencia . (The Venezuelan Congress was dissolved in 1999 following
the election of Hugo Chavez as president.)
Mr. Coronel earned degrees in geology from the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma and from the Central
University of Caracas, and a Master’s degree in International Public Polic y from Johns Hopkins
University. He has been a professor at the Graduate School of Economics at Universidad Central de
Venezuela, Caracas, and was a fellow at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University from
1981-83.
Mr. Coronel is the author of numerous articles and publications on the Venezuelan oil industry, economic
development in Venezuela, and curbing corruption in Venezuela.
JAMES F ERRER , JR.
James Ferrer, Jr. is the founder and director of The Center for Latin American Issues-CLAI, at The
George Washington University. The Center was established in 1992 to help expand the University’s Latin
American Program; to stimulate the preparation of scholarly publications and articles on Latin America;
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to conduct educational training programs; and to encourage debate on major political, economic, and
social issues affecting Latin America.
Dr. Ferrer was a director of VASP Brazilian Airlines, and was responsible for the United States, Canada,
and Asia. From 1986 until 1990, he was the Deputy U.S. Ambassador and Acting Ambassador in Brazil.
His main duties were to set the U.S. Mission’s overall policy goals, work programs and resource
allocation. From 1979 to 1983, he was the director of the Office of Aviation and Communication Affairs
for the Department of State. While at the Department, he conducted or oversaw negotiations with more
than fifty countries and traveled extensively to expand U.S. airline operating rights.
Dr. Ferrer worked as Director of Economic Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Lisbon from 1975 to 1979. His
main duties were to oversee United States economic/commercial interests during Portugal’s chaotic 1975
revolution. In addition to the foreign diplomatic positions mentioned above, Dr. Ferrer directed the
economic/commercial section at the U.S. consulate in Rio de Janeiro, served in the economic sections of
the U.S. embassies in Buenos Aires and Santiago, directed the "Brazil Desk" at the State Department,
worked in the Intelligence and Research Bureau of the State Department, and served in the administrative
offices of the Latin American Bureau. Dr. Ferrer obtained his Ph.D. in Latin American History from the
University of California at Berkeley, his Master’s Degree in Latin American Studies from the same
university, and his M.P.A. in Economics from Harvard University.
RAÚL G ANGOTENA
Raúl Gangotena is active as a Founding Member of the Indigenous Enterprise Corporation of Ecuador
and of the Afro-Ecuadorian Enterprise Corporation, organizations that promote mass ownership of large
firms by marginalized citizens. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Phelps Stokes Fund
of the USA, and in 2005 was a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow of the International Forum for
Democratic Studies, National Endowment for Democracy. From 2003 to 2005 he was Ecuador’s
Ambassador to the United States. In 1966 he was President Sixto Durán Ballén’s Chief of Staff. He has
been also Presidential Delegate to the Monetary Reserve Board (1994-96); Executive Director of the
National Modernization Council, CONAM (1997-98); and Executive Director of the National PreInvestment Fund (1980-84).
Gangotena has extensive experience in the private sector as well. He was Executive Director of the Quito
Chamber of Commerce (2001-03); CEO of the Metrozona free trade zone (1999-2001); CEO of
Confiandina, a consulting firm (1984-86); CFO of Palmoriente, a palm oil plantation (1986-88); VicePresident for Sales of La Internacional, the main textile mill in Ecuador (1978-80); and has served as
President and Member of the Board of several companies.
He has maintained an active media presence, writing columns in El Universo (Guayaquil), El Comercio
and Hoy (Quito), from 1989 to 2003. He has also been a member of the Ecuadorian Board of the
Fulbright Commission and of the Editorial Board of the journal El Comercio; media advisor to the Under
Secretary of Defense (2001); and a Professor at the National Polytechnic School and the San Francisco
University, as well as President of Universidad de Las Américas (1998-2000).
Ambassador Gangotena won the 6th Essay Contest of the Latin American Center of Administration for
Development, CLAD, in 1989. He has also published several papers, with a concentration in the field of
decentralization of the public sector in Ecuador and Latin America.
He received a Chemical Engineering Degree from the National Polytechnic School in Quito, Ecuador, and
his MBA in 1974 from the University of New Mexico.
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Born in Quito, Ecuador in 1945, Ambassador Gangotena is married to Anne Patteet, a native of Belgium,
and has four children.
G. P HILIP HUGHES
G. Philip Hughes, currently a Senior Director of the White House Writers Group, has served in many
senior foreign policy posts in the White House and Departments of State, Commerce and Defense.
For almost five years he served as Deputy National Security Affairs Advisor to Vice President George
Bush. He was responsible for briefing the Vice President on European, Soviet area, Latin American,
intelligence, trade, public diplomacy and international organization issues and representing the Vice
President at sub-Cabinet and Cabinet-level meetings on those issues. He served as Director for Latin
American Affairs on the National Security Council staff, briefing and accompanying President Ronald
Reagan on summit trips to Mexico and the Eastern Caribbean and First Lady Nancy Reagan on a relief
visit after the Mexico City earthquake.
As Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Politico-Military Affairs, Ambassador Hughes negotiated
more than a half-dozen bilateral and multilateral agreements, including supercomputer export agreements
with Japan, the United Kingdom, and India. In this role he supervised the final negotiation of the Missile
Technology Control Regime, on which we continue to rely to stem the proliferation of ballistic missile
capabilities. He then served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement, which gave
him responsibility for the enforcement of U.S. export control and anti-boycott laws.
Ambassador Hughes served as Executive Secretary of the National Security Council in the White House
of President George H.W. Bush, overseeing the operation of the NSC for the President's National Security
Adviser. He was subsequently appointed Ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, where he
served from 1990-93.
In the private sector, Ambassador Hughes has led the National Council of World Affairs Organizations
(now the World Affairs Councils of America), the national network of nearly 100 Councils in cities
across the U.S. As Managing Director for Washington Operations of the Council of the Americas, he
worked on the first and second Western Hemisphere Energy Ministers' meetings and the Western
Hemisphere energy initiative catalyzed by the Miami Summit of the Americas, and the first-ever meeting
of Western Hemisphere Finance Ministers. In this position and as Vice President of Manchester Trade,
Ltd., he worked on three Western Hemisphere Trade Ministerials advancing the Free Trade of the
Americas Agreement. Ambassador Hughes also served as Chief Operating Office of AIPT, an
international educational exchange organization specializing in on-the-job-training internships for U.S.
and foreign students.
Ambassador Hughes is a graduate of the University of Dayton and holds graduate degrees from the
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and Harvard University. He is currently a Senior Associate at the
Center for Strategic & International Studies, and Secretary of the Council of American Ambassadors.
Mr. Hughes is fluent in Spanish and French. He and his wife, Victoria, live in Falls Church, Virginia.
G ABRIEL MARCELLA
Gabriel Marcella recently retired as Professor of Third World Studies at the United States Army War
College. During his government career he also served as International Affairs Advisor at the United
States Southern Command.
Dr. Marcella has written extensively on Latin American security and U.S. strategy. These include civilmilitary relations, the Central American crisis, Cuba, Haiti, Colombia, the Ecuador-Peru conflict, and
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other aspects of Latin American and Andean security. His latest publications include: “American Grand
Strategy for Latin America in the Age of Resentment” (Strategic Studies Institute), the forthcoming
“Wars Without Borders: the Ecuador-Colombia Conflict of 2008” (Strategic Studies Institute), and
“Teaching Strategy in the 21st Century” (Joint Forces Quarterly , with Steve Fought).
Dr. Marcella is the co-founder of the Teaching Strategy Group, an organization dedicated to excellence in
the teaching of strategy. Born in Italy, Dr. Marcella was honored with the distinction of Commendatore
al Merito della Repubblica by the President of the Italian Republic. His current research focuses on the
crisis of governance and authority in Latin America.
Washington, DC
December 2008