Luis Ayllón
The Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development (AECID) now has new heads of Ibero-American and African and Asian affairs. Laura Oroz will be the Director of Cooperation with Latin America, and Carmen Magariños will head the Directorate for Asia and Africa.
The appointment of José Manuel Albares as Minister of Foreign Affairs brought about the replacement of the director of the AECID, with the departure of Magdy Martínez Solimán and the arrival of Antón Leis. A few weeks later, the appointments of Carmen Castiella, Director of Cooperation with Latin America, as Ambassador to Paraguay, and Cristina Díaz, as Ambassador to Kenya, materialised.
Now, the vacancies left by the two new ambassadors have been replaced by two other women who were posted abroad and who have extensive experience in their respective areas.
Specifically, Laura Oroz, who is the new head of cooperation with Latin American and Caribbean countries, was until now Spain’s consul general in Santiago de Chile.
A diplomat since 2004, she has already worked at the AECID, between 2013 and 2019, first on issues related to Asia and Africa and later in the area of Latin America, with a special focus on the Andean and Southern Cone countries. She was previously posted in Nigeria, India and Vietnam.
Carmen Magariños, the new Director of Cooperation with Asia and Africa, has spent the last three years as Head of Communication at the EU Delegation in Senegal, after having worked since 2014 in Brussels as a Temporary Agent in the West Africa Division of the European External Action Service.
She joined the diplomatic service in 2007 and was responsible for North African affairs in the Directorate-General for the Maghreb, Africa, the Mediterranean and the Middle East. She was also posted to the Department for the Coordination of Cultural and Scientific Relations of the AECID, and to the Spanish Embassy in Equatorial Guinea.
In addition, Anton Leis has chosen Maider Makua, also a diplomat, as head of his cabinet. She was stationed at the Spanish Embassy in Belgium and, since joining the diplomatic service in 2008, has served in the Spanish Embassies in Nicaragua and Haiti, as well as in the Regional Affairs Unit of the Americas Department of the European External Action Service.
In the AECID structure, the Director of Cultural and Scientific Relations, Guzmán Palacios, and the Director of Multilateral Cooperation, Fernando Jiménez Ontiveros, remain.
