The Diplomat
The new Ambassador of Mozambique to Spain, Maria Manuela Dos Santos Lucas, yesterday handed over the Copies of Letters of her Credence to the Introducer of Ambassadors the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Caridad Batalla.
Maria Manuela Dos Santos Lucas was appointed Ambassador last February by the President of Mozambique, Filipe Nyussi, to replace José António Alberto Matsinhe. Born in 1961 in the city of Matola, Maputo province, the new ambassador had held the position of deputy minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation since December 2017.
A graduate and Master in International Relations from the Universities of Maputo and Birmingham, Maria Lucas joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1981 and in 1986 was posted to the Embassy of Mozambique in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). Between 1995 and 1996, she was Consul of Mozambique in Cape Town (South Africa) and between 1997 and 1999, she served as Counselor at the Embassy of Mozambique in Brasilia, Brazil.
Subsequently, she was director of the Directorate for International Organizations at the Ministry and Mozambique’s ambassador to Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg (from 2003 to 2011) and Italy (from 2016 to 2017), before being appointed deputy minister. Politically, she belongs to the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), the party that has governed Mozambique since its independence in 1975.
