Ambassador Hugo Cayrús presented his Letter of Credence as Ambassador of Uruguay to the Republic of Türkiye on December 27, 2022, being the first resident Ambassador of Uruguay in Ankara. 

He is a career diplomat from the Uruguayan Foreign Service. He was Director of the Artigas Institute of the Foreign Service, the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uruguay (from July 2020 to October 2022). He has served as Director of Institutional Relations (from March to July 2020). 

He was Permanent Representative of Uruguay to the Organization of American States (OAS) for the period between October 1, 2014 and December 28, 2019, during which he chaired the Permanent Council (July to September 2015) and the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs of such Organization (from August, 2017 to June, 2018). 

He was appointed Ambassador of Uruguay to the Republic of Colombia, serving between 2009 and 2012. 

He has worked as Director of Treaties (2013-2014), Director of Integration (2005-2006), Deputy Director-General for International Economic Affairs (2003-2004) and Coordinator of the Dispute Settlement Unit (2003-2006) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uruguay. 

He has acted as Uruguay’s legal representative in several disputes raised within the scope of MERCOSUR dispute settlement proceedings. 

He has chaired and has been a member of various Panels on Dispute Settlement at the World Trade Organization (WTO). 

He took several courses related to the WTO, including the WTO Trade Policy Course (Geneva, Switzerland, 1996), the Specialized Course on WTO Dispute Settlement Rules and Procedures (Geneva, November, 2000 and June-July, 2004) and the Course on WTO Dispute Settlement Procedures (Advisory Center on WTO Law, ACWL, Geneva, 2002-2003). 

He served in the Embassy of Uruguay in Beijing, People’s Republic of China (1990-1995), in the Permanent Delegation of Uruguay to the United Nations Office, the World Trade Organization and International Organizations based in Geneva (1998-2003, where he participated, among others, in the negotiations on agriculture and on trade in services and in various processes of accession to the WTO) and in the Uruguayan Embassy in Washington, D.C., as Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission (2007-2009). 

He was Chairman of the Working Party on GATS Rules (WTO, 2001) and chaired the plurilateral meetings on Trade in Services in the Working Party on China´s accession to the WTO. 

He has participated in different seminars and conferences and has written various articles on WTO-related issues. 

Additionally, he has taught courses on WTO in the Master’s Degree in Integration and International Trade at the Universidad de Montevideo. 

He has a Law degree (Juris Doctor) from the Law School, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay. 

He is fluent in Spanish, English and French and has a basic command of Chinese. 

He is married, with four children.