Bill Richardson, ex-Governor and UN Ambassador, passes away after efforts to release detained Americans.
Remembering Bill Richardson: A Champion for Freedom
WASHINGTON—Bill Richardson, a two-term Democratic governor of New Mexico and an American ambassador to the United Nations who dedicated his post-political career to working to secure the release of Americans detained by foreign adversaries, has died. He was 75.
The Richardson Center for Global Engagement, which he founded and led, said in a statement Saturday that he died in his sleep at his home in Chatham, Massachusetts.
“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,” said Mickey Bergman, the center’s vice president. “There was no person that Gov. 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.”
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President Joe Biden said Mr. Richardson seized every chance he had to serve in government and lauded his efforts to free Americans being held elsewhere. “He’d meet with anyone, fly anywhere, do whatever it took. The multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominations he received are a testament to his ceaseless pursuit of freedom for Americans,” the president said in a statement. “So is the profound gratitude that countless families feel today for the former governor who helped reunite them with their loved ones.”
Before his election in 2002 as governor, Mr. Richardson was U.S. envoy to the United Nations and energy secretary under President Bill Clinton and served 14 years as a congressman representing northern New Mexico.
But he also forged an identity as an unofficial diplomatic troubleshooter. He traveled the globe negotiating the release of hostages and American servicemen from North Korea, Iraq, Cuba, and Sudan and bargained with a who’s who of America’s adversaries, including Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. It was a role Mr. Richardson relished, once describing himself as “the informal undersecretary for thugs.”
“I believe that we have to engage our adversaries no matter how different our philosophies are,” Mr. Richardson once said. “The way you deal with issues that divide nations is through humanitarian efforts before political differences. I think that is fundamental.”
He helped secure the 2021 release of American journalist Danny Fenster from a Myanmar prison and this year negotiated the freedom of Taylor Dudley, who crossed the border from Poland into Russia. He met with Russian government officials in the months before the release last year of Marine veteran Trevor Reed in a prisoner swap and also worked on the cases of Brittney Griner, the WNBA player freed by Moscow last year, and Michael White, a Navy veteran released by Iran in 2020.
Roger Carstens, the U.S. government’s chief hostage negotiator, described Mr. Richardson as “a friend and partner in bringing wrongfully detained Americans and hostages home,” and said in a statement Saturday that he would “miss his wise counsel and friendship.”
Armed with a golden resume and wealth of experience in foreign and domestic affairs, Mr. Richardson sought the 2008 Democratic nomination for president in hopes of becoming the nation’s first Hispanic president. He dropped out of the race after lackluster finishes in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.
Mr. Richardson was the nation’s only Hispanic governor during his two terms, calling it “the best job I ever had.”
“It’s the most fun. You can get the most done. You set the agenda,” Mr. Richardson said.
As governor, Mr. Richardson signed legislation in 2009 that repealed the death penalty.
Some of his most prominent global work began in December 1994, when he was visiting North Korean nuclear sites and word came that an American helicopter pilot had been downed and his co-pilot killed.
The Clinton White House enlisted Mr. Richardson’s help and, after days of tough negotiations, the then-congressman accompanied the remains of Chief Warrant Officer David Hilemon while paving the way for Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Hall to return home.
The following year, and after a personal appeal from Mr. Richardson, Saddam Hussein freed two Americans who had been imprisoned for four months, charged with illegally crossing into Iraq from Kuwait.
Mr. Richardson continued his freelance diplomacy even while serving as governor. He had barely started his first term as governor when he met with two North Korean envoys in Santa Fe. He traveled to North Korea in 2007 to recover remains of American servicemen killed in the Korean War.
In 2006, he persuaded Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to free Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Paul Salopek.
In an interview with The Associa
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