2nd September, 2023
Former New Mexico governor, Bill Richardson, who was last month nominated for Nobel Peace prize, has died in his sleep at the age of 75.
Richardson was an American politician, author, and diplomat who served as the 30th governor of New Mexico from 2003 to 2011.
He was also the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and energy secretary in the Clinton administration, a U.S. congressman, chairman of the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and chairman of the Democratic Governors Association.
Mickey Bergman, vice president of the Richardson Center, in a statement said the former governor 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.
He said there was no person that Governor Richardson would not speak with if it held the promise of returning a person to freedom.
“The world has lost a champion for those held unjustly abroad and I have lost a mentor and a dear friend,” the statement said.
According to NBC News, Richardson was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize last month in recognition of his work saving Americans, most recently WNBA player Brittney Griner, who was arrested at a Moscow airport when authorities found hash oil in her luggage.
Griner was released last December after being detained for nearly ten months.
PM NEWS reports that Richardson was born on November 15, 1947.
In December 2008, Richardson was nominated for the cabinet-level position of Secretary of Commerce in the first Obama administration but withdrew a month later, as he was being investigated for possible improper business dealings in New Mexico.
Although the investigation was later dropped, it damaged Richardson’s popularity and diminished his influence as his second and final term as New Mexico governor concluded.
Richardson occasionally provided advice on diplomatic issues pertaining to North Korea and visited the nation on several occasions, including efforts to release American detainees. He completed a number of private humanitarian missions, one of which secured the release of U.S. journalist Danny Fenster from a Myanmar prison in November 2021.