Luis Ayllón
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, has already decided, five months after receiving the proposals, on the replacements that will take place in most of the thirty or so embassies that were pending change, according to diplomatic sources.
At least fifteen to twenty diplomats already know the destinations they will have once the Council of Ministers approves at its next meetings the request for approval from the various countries and they give their approval, which may take a few more months.
The minister had had on her desk since before Christmas the shortlists presented by the Ministry’s management team for 32 embassies that had been put out to tender last autumn, in addition to the one in London, which became vacant at the beginning of February after the departure of its head, Carlos Bastarreche.
Among the embassies for which a new ambassador has already been chosen are India, which has been vacant for more than seven months, and Russia and Iran, where the incumbents -Fernando Valderrama and Luis Felipe Fernández de la Peña- reached retirement age at the end of May, but are still in their posts. For India, the chosen one, according to the newspaper El País, would be José María Ridao, currently assigned to the Diplomatic School; while in Moscow, according to Voz Populi, Camilo Villarino, currently chief of staff to Minister González Laya, and who previously worked with Alfonso Dastis and Josep Borrell, as well as Margarita Robles, during the brief period in which he was interim head of the Ministry, will go.
As for Tehran, sources consulted by The Diplomat indicate that the new ambassador will be Ángel Losada, who at the end of this month concludes his mandate as the European Union’s representative for the Sahel.
In addition, the appointment as ambassador to Canada of Alfredo Martínez, head of Protocol at the King’s Household, is considered certain, and some sources suggest, without confirmation, that Ion de la Riva, who is currently in Rome, could go to the embassy in Greece, one of the most sought-after.
Another of the most sought-after embassies, that of the Dominican Republic, will be occupied by Antonio Pérez-Hernández, who at the end of last year left his post as director of Casa América, which has not yet been filled.
Pedro Martínez Avial, current director of Casa Árabe, will be appointed ambassador to Iraq. He will replace Hansi Escobar in Baghdad, who, in turn, according to some sources, could move on to take charge of Casa Árabe, once his hopes of being elected EU representative for the Middle East were not fulfilled.
Jorge Hevia, deputy director of Foreign Policy and Security and president of the Spanish Association of Diplomats (ADE), would be the new ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
One of the minister’s objectives is to appoint as many female ambassadors as possible in order to reduce the gap with their male counterparts, a task that, according to some sources, is not proving easy.
In any case, it seems that Ana Salomon, currently director general for North America, Asia and the Pacific, will be the next ambassador to Israel, and that Lorea Aribalzaga will move from the sub-directorate general for Andean countries to the embassy in Slovakia. Teresa Lizaranzu would be the new ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, a post that has been vacant for more than two months due to the retirement of the incumbent, José María Valdemoro.
Cristina Diaz, currently director of Cooperation with Africa and Asia, will be ambassador to Kenya, while Carmen Castiella, director of Cooperation with Latin America and the Caribbean, will be ambassador to Paraguay.
In addition, Elena Gómez Castro, who currently holds the post of Director General of Defence Policy (Digenpol) in the Ministry of Defence, will be the new ambassador representing Spain at the EU’s Political and Security Committee (COPS) in Brussels.
The package of appointments so far includes several members of the Ministry’s current management team. In addition to those already mentioned, Raimundo Robredo, the current director general for Africa, is certain to become ambassador to Thailand; and Guillermo Corral, head of the cabinet of the secretary of state for Global Spain, Manuel Muñiz, will go to Estonia. Some unconfirmed sources suggest that Felipe de la Morena could be the new ambassador to South Africa and Francisco Aguilera to Indonesia.
Nothing certain is known about the vacancy in London, four months after the departure of the previous ambassador, although it is assured that it is a post in which the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will have a lot to say.
