Luis Ayllón
The foreign ministers of the Ibero-American countries discussed yesterday, in New York, the replacement at the head of the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), which has fallen vacant following the appointment of Rebeca Grynspan as Secretary-General of UNCTAD, the UN’s trade and development body.
The foreign ministers, including the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, met at the traditional breakfast held annually on the margins of the UN General Assembly.
On his Twitter account, Albares reported that at the meeting they discussed the takeover of the SEGIB, as well as the fight against COVID, the green economy and the digital transition. The minister said he reminded his colleagues that they can count on Spain to defend their interests in the EU and the rest of the world.
At the meeting, the acting Ibero-American Secretary General, Marco Pinta Gama, presented an account of SEGIB’s activities in recent months.
The appointment of the person to head the SEGIB, which is based in Spain, must be made unanimously by all the countries that form part of the Ibero-American Conference from among the candidates presented.
Formally, the presentation of candidatures opened on 15 November, so that the foreign ministers were able to make an initial review of the candidates yesterday, although no substantial progress is expected, at least until the ministers meet again on 26 November. On that occasion, they will be convened by the pro tempore secretariat of the Ibero-American Summits, currently held by the Dominican Republic, where the next meeting of heads of state and government will be held, foreseeably in the autumn of 2022.
Although the names of former Mexican Minister and former Secretary General of the OECD, José Ángel Gurría, former Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra and former Colombian Foreign Minister María Ángela Holguín initially emerged as candidates for the SEGIB, none of them managed to formalise their candidacies, among other reasons because they did not have the support of the governments of their respective countries.
On the other hand, according to reliable sources consulted by The Diplomat, other candidates have been on the table at the foreign ministers’ meeting, such as the Ecuadorian Rosalía Arteaga, whose candidacy has been formalised by the Ecuadorian government. Arteaga was Vice-President of Ecuador in 1996 and, following the institutional crisis that occurred in the country with the fall of the then President Abdalá Bucaram, she assumed the presidency on 9 February 1997, but resigned from the post two days later. She was also Minister of Education and President of the Foundation for the Development of Latin America.
Guatemala has also put forward its foreign minister, Pedro Brolo, who has held the post since January 2020 and who has held various positions in the Organisation of American States and has been a representative of several multinational companies, as a candidate.
Peru also announced the candidacy of José Antonio García Belaunde, who was the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs between 2006 and 2011, as well as Ambassador to Spain between 2016 and 2019. In that year, he became the representative in Europe of the CAF, Development Bank of Latin America.
Another name that has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the SEGIB is that of the Chilean Foreign Minister, Andrés Allamand, who would have the support not only of his country, but also of Colombia. He has held the post since the end of July 2020 and was Minister of Defence in 2011 and 2012.
Although the foreign ministers had the opportunity to discuss the names of the first candidates, it should be borne in mind that the deadline for the presentation of candidatures is 19 November, a week before the meeting of foreign ministers of the Ibero-American Conference, at which it is hoped that an agreement can be reached.
