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“There Is No Lack of Money in the World”--- María Fernanda Espinosa

From negotiating Indigenous land rights in the Ecuadorian Amazon to presiding over the United Nations General Assembly, María Fernanda Espinosa, 61, has spent three decades moving between the corridors of multilateral diplomacy and the front lines of international policymaking. 

Now she is making her most ambitious bid yet by throwing her hat in the ring for the contest to become the next secretary-general of the United Nations. Espinosa will be joining two other women–Michelle Bachelet of Chile and Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica– in this race. 

Antigua and Barbuda formally submitted Espinosa’s credentials to the respective presidents of the General Assembly and the Security Council in May, making Espinosa the fifth candidate in the race to succeed António Guterres, whose term ends on Dec. 31.