The Diplomat
Spanish Government approved the promotion to the professional category of ambassador of a total of 16 diplomats with long careers, according to the Official State Gazette yesterday, in as many royal decrees.
Among those promoted -many of them close to retirement age (70 years old)- are Spain’s current ambassador to the Holy See, Carmen de la Peña, who will be replaced in the coming weeks by the former Minister of Education Isabel Celaá, once the Vatican has granted the approval requested by the Spanish government.
Also promoted is Alberto Navarro, former EU Secretary of State and Spanish ambassador to Morocco and Portugal, who last year, when he was head of the European Union Delegation in Havana, was at the centre of a controversy over statements in which he claimed that Cuba was not a dictatorship.
Javier Sandomingo, who until yesterday was Spain’s ambassador to Argentina, Fernando Carderera, Spain’s former ambassador to Paris, and Francisco Millán, MEP for the Popular Group since 2004 and brother-in-law of former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, have also been promoted.
The group is made up of: Arturo Avello, José Luis Solano, Emilio Lozano, Fernando Arias González; María Isabel Vicandi, Rafael Tormo, Francisco Pascual de la Parte, José María de la Torre, Carlos María de Lojendio; Félix Valdés; and Eduardo Alonso Luengo.
