The Diplomat
Diplomat Jesús Ezquerra Calvo, who was Spain’s ambassador to the Holy See, died on Friday night at his home in Madrid at the age of 84, according to The Diplomat.
Jesús Ezquerra entered the diplomatic career in 1966 and had an outstanding professional career, which led him to become undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ambassador to various countries and multilateral organisations.
In 1978 he was appointed Ambassador to Cameroon and three years later he took charge of the Embassy in Senegal. Between 1985 and 1987 he was Director General of Foreign Policy for Europe.
In 1987, he was appointed ambassador to the Vatican, where he played an important role in restoring relations with the Holy See, after the disagreements of his predecessor Gonzalo Puente Ojea, an avowed agnostic and the first ambassador sent by the government of Felipe González to that post.
Ezquerra had a good knowledge of matters related to the Catholic Church, since in 1976 he had been director of Relations with the Holy See, and between 1984 and 1985,
In 1993 he was appointed Ambassador to Denmark, although he remained in the post for little more than a year, as in June 1994 he was appointed Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In 1996, he was appointed permanent delegate ambassador of Spain to Unesco, based in Paris, and in 2002, consul general in London, where he remained until his retirement in 2006, with the professional category of ambassador.
