Adolfo Costa du Rels
| Adolfo Costa du Rels | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 1891 Sucre |
| Died | 1980 La Paz |
| Nationality | Bolivian |
| Occupation | Diplomat, writer |
Adolfo Costa du Rels (or Adolfo Costa du Reís) (1891– 26 May 1980) was a Bolivian writer and diplomat who became the last President of the Council of the League of Nations. He was the author of many plays, novels and other writings, mostly in French, and received several literary awards.
Adolfo Costa du Rels was born in Sucre in 1891. His father was a French engineer from Corsica; his mother, Amelia du Reís y Medeiros, was Bolivian. The family returned to Corsica when he was eight years old. At the age of ten, he was sent to the Fesch college in Ajaccio, Corsica. Later he studied at the University of Aix-en-Provence, and then studied literature and law at the University of Paris-Sorbonne. Writing in Spanish, in his 1941 essay El drama del escritor bilingüe [The drama of the bilingual writer] Costa du Rels described the "linguistic trauma" that resulted from being a native Spanish-speaker educated in French.
Costa du Rels returned to Bolivia in 1912. Oil had been discovered in the Bolivian Oriente, and prospecting and speculation were at their height. A member of the Sucre elite, he obtained grants to explore for petroleum in the region and spent several years in the effort, becoming one of the richest petroleum operators in the country. In 1914 he became secretary of the Incauasi Petroleum Syndicate, and by 1916 he owned claims for a combined area of 500,000 hectares (1,200,000 acres). Later he used these experiences to provide background for his novel Tierra hechizadas [Bewitched Lands].
Costa du Rels entered the diplomatic service in 1917 and was attached to the Bolivian embassy in France. He was then appointed Bolivian chargé d'affaires in Chile. He was elected a deputy in the Bolivian government for a period, then became a counsellor to the Bolivian embassy in France. In 1928 he was the Bolivian delegate to the Pan-American Conference in Havana, where he was rapporteur of the Havana Convention for the protection of artistic property and copyright, and then was Bolivian delegate to the International Institute for Intellectual Cooperation.
Costa du Rels was appointed Bolivian delegate to the Geneva-based Assembly of the League of Nations, and in 1930 was vice-president of the 11th Assembly of the league. He was appointed a member of the Standing Committee of Arts and Letters in 1931. In January 1927 the Bolivian government adhered to the Geneva Convention's protocol on trafficking of opium and other harmful drugs, with reservations concerning coca, a relatively mild drug (in its leaf form) that had been used for centuries by the local people. These reservations were incorporated into Bolivian law in 1932. Costa du Rels was provided with many pamphlets on coca to help him defend the Bolivian position at the League of Nations. In 1933 he sought "advice from industrialists and landowners of the Yungas" on new steps to protect coca. The arguments in defense included the economic importance of the crop, its value in health and nutrition, and the fact that its use was a long tradition among Bolivians.
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