Carlos F. Diaz-Alejandro; Latin American Economist
Carlos Federico Diaz-Alejandro, an authority on Latin American economics, has died of pneumonia at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. He was 48.
In 1983, the Cuban-born Diaz-Alejandro was one of two Latinos appointed to President Reagan’s National Bipartisan Commission on Central America, also known as the Kissinger Commission. Although he signed the group’s final policy paper, he dissented from its recommendation that covert aid to Nicaraguan rebels be continued.
Diaz-Alejandro, who died July 17, came to Columbia University last year from Yale, where he had been a professor of economics since 1970. He previously taught at the University of Minnesota. He was the author of numerous articles and books on Latin American debt, economic history and economic development.
He graduated from Miami University in Ohio in 1957 and received a doctorate in economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1961.
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