Andrés Costilludo.
Luis Ayllón. Madrid.
The Cabinet has appointed Andrés Costilludo Gómez to be the new director of the Protocol Department of the Presidency of the Government, as replacement of Bernardo de Sicart. Against what is usual, Costilludo does not belong to the Diplomatic Career, but to the Army, although he has more than enough experience as regards protocol, since he has spent the last twenty years dedicated to it.
Aged 61 years old, Andrés Costilludo is colonel of the General Staff of the Army of the Rank of Officers, but in 1993 his working life, which had until then developed in different military placements, among them several peace missions in Central America, took a turn when he joined the Protocol Department in Moncloa. First, he worked as advisory member and general deputy director, taking care in numerous occasions of the preparation of international trips of the president of the Government.
Between February 2012 and January 2013, he was responsible for the direction of the Unity of Support of the Organizing Committee of the Latin American Summit of Cadiz and, at the moment, he was working as assistant director of the Protocol Department, which he is now going to lead.
Ambassadors appointed in Switzerland, Nigeria, Croatia, Guinea and Latvia
For his part, Bernardo de Sicart Escoda will be ambassador in Switzerland. He is 56 years old and he has been a diplomat since 1985. He has been the chief of Protocol of the Presidency of the Government since February 2012 and he was previously consul general in Lima and coordinator of the Committee of Permanent Representatives in the Embassy of Spain for the EU. He has also been assigned to Equatorial Guinea, Algeria and Mexico.
Besides, as The Diplomat has already informed, Alfonso Barnuevo Sebastián de Erice has been appointed ambassador in Nigeria, in quite a delicate moment for that country. Barnuevo had already been ambassador in another African country, Namibia, and, at the moment, he was working as general deputy director of the Office of Diplomatic Information. He is 50 years old and he has been a diplomat since 1990. He has also been assigned to Gabon, Poland, China, Syria and the United Nations.
For his part, Eduardo Aznar Campos, who has been in charge of the activities of the Year Spain-Japan since June 2011, will be the new ambassador in Croatia. He was born in 1956, he started his diplomatic career in 1985 and he has been assigned to Venezuela, China, Hungary and Colombia.
Francisco de Asís Benítez Salas has been appointed as ambassador in Guinea. He was born in 1962 and he has been a diplomat since 1988. He has been number two in the Embassies of Thailand and Korea, and advisory member for the Consular Emergency. He has been the head of the Unit of Protocol of the Presidency of the Government since 2012.
Finally, Pedro Miguel Jiménez Nácher has been appointed ambassador in Latvia. He was born in 1958 and he started his diplomatic career in 1987. He has been general deputy director for Legal Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and he was second head at the Embassy in Belgrade and in the Permanent Representation before the Council of Europe. At the moment, he was consul general of Spain in Nador.
