José Ramos-Horta

Biography

José Ramos-Horta was born in Dili in 1949 to a Portuguese father and a mother of mixed Portuguese and Timorese descent, and was schooled at a Catholic mission in Soibada. His early political activity in Portuguese Timor led to two years of exile in Mozambique in 1970-1971. A founder of Fretilin, he was named foreign minister of the short-lived Democratic Republic of East Timor in late 1975 and left the territory days before the Indonesian invasion to argue its case at the United Nations.

For the next quarter of a century he was the resistance's chief voice abroad, serving for ten years as Fretilin's representative at the UN and later campaigning as an independent after leaving the party in 1988. He studied international law at The Hague Academy and Columbia University in 1983 and earned a master's degree in peace studies from Antioch University in 1984. In 1996 he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo for their efforts towards a peaceful settlement in East Timor.

After the 1999 referendum he helped negotiate the transitional institutions with the UN administration and became foreign minister of the independent state in 2002. He resigned during the 2006 crisis, then succeeded Mari Alkatiri as prime minister and in May 2007 won the presidency in a runoff against Francisco Guterres. In February 2008 he was gravely wounded when rebel soldiers attacked his home and was treated in Darwin, Australia.

Ramos-Horta lost his bid for a second term in 2012 and then served as the UN Secretary-General's special representative in Guinea-Bissau. With the backing of Xanana Gusmão and the CNRT, he defeated the incumbent Guterres in the 2022 runoff and returned to the presidency.