 In 1971, he was appointed head of the government's Department of Trade Promotion.He spent most of his overseas career on the "Elizabeth Arden circuit", high-status capital cities such as Rome, Paris, London and Washington, D.C.. From 1985 to 1990 he was secretary general of the Foreign Ministry in Brasília.In August 1990, Flecha de Lima was on holiday in southern France when he was commissioned to conduct negotiations on behalf of his government for the release of some five hundred Brazilians living in Iraq.