H.E. Gladys Marithza Ruíz de Vielman is a Guatemalan lawyer, politician and career diplomat. After spending most of her life working for a contentious case between Guatemala and Belize, first as a Member of the Belize Council and Belize Commission and then as Coordinator of the National Litigation, H.E. Ruiz de Vielman currently serves as Co-agent representing the State of Guatemala before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
H.E Ruiz de Vielman was born and raised in Guatemala, afterwards she moved several times to study abroad; first to The United States of America and subsequently to Brazil and France, developing a good command of the English, French and Portuguese language, in addition to her Spanish mother tongue.
After completed her university studies in Law, she built her own law firm to provide legal services to the Guatemalan government and the private sector and, some years later, she decided to come back to her Alma mater as a law lecturer. During this time, she also imparted various seminars in Guatemala and abroad. Furthermore, H.E. Ruiz de Vielman also carried out several socio-economic development projects in Guatemala in cooperation with distinguished organizations such as the World Bank among others.
Her diplomatic career started in 1986 with ministerial and presidential level meetings. Later on, she was designated as the Guatemala Permanent Representative to the International Coffee Organization, International Sugar Organization and International Maritime Organization. In addition, she negotiated a number of trade disputes before the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GAAT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), mainly focused on Guatemalan bananas’ access to the European Union market. Her Excellency Ambassador Ruiz de Vieltman, also represented Guatemala in several regional and multilateral organizations, including well known Organizations based in the United Kingdom, Switzerland and other related to the United Nations.
Ambassador Ruíz de Vielman has held various relevant positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Guatemala. Among others, she served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1994-1995. She was appointed Ambassador of the Republic of Guatemala to the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland (2000-2003), to the United States of America (2016-2017) and finally was deployed to serve as Ambassador of Guatemala to the Kingdom of The Netherlands.
