 Ruedas served as UN Resident Coordinator/UNDP Resident Representative in Sao Tomé and Príncipe, beginning in 1999.She was then assigned to the same post in Bulgaria in 2001, at the end of which she was awarded the country's state medal, the Stara Planina Order, by former Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov.While in Bulgaria she helped to organize a UN project which provided assistance to the Government of Bulgaria in identifying and destroying surpluses of weapons and ammunition.