OAN’s Roy Francis
3:51 PM – Saturday, September 2, 2023
Bill Richardson, the former two-term Democrat governor of New Mexico, and United States ambassador to the United Nation has died at the age of 75.
His death was confirmed in a statement by the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, a non-profit organization created to “successfully negotiate the release of prisoners and hostages who are being held by hostile countries or organizations.”
“Governor Richardson passed away peacefully in his sleep last night,” vice president of the Richardson Center, Mickey Bergman, said. “He 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. 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.”
Aside from being a two-term governor of New Mexico, and ambassador to the United Nations, Richardson had also served as a U.S. Congressman and Secretary of Energy under the Clinton administration.
After his career in government was over, Richardson founded the Richardson Center for Global Engagement in 2011, a non-profit organization that worked to free people that were being held as political prisoners or hostages in foreign countries.
While working with the organization Richardson aided more than 80 million families that had loved ones detained abroad providing them with support and guidance through the process. According to the organization, Richardson had engaged in “fringe diplomacy” in order to negotiate with foreign officials.
His work with the organization had earned him multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominations. Roger Carstens, the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, expressed his condolences in a post on X on Saturday.
Richardson is survived by his wife, Barbara Richardson whom he married in 1972, and his daughter Heather Blaine Richardson.
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