Luis Ayllón
The Official State Gazette (BOE) yesterday published the call for 114 jobs in Spanish diplomatic representations abroad.
The call, known in diplomatic jargon as the ‘Bombo’, includes some thirty Consulates General, as well as a good number of Second Heads, some of them in countries that are quite important for Spanish foreign policy.
Among the posts put out to tender are three of the so-called ‘asterisk posts’, i.e. those that are appointed directly by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, without first hearing the opinion of the Board of the Diplomatic Career, because they are considered to be of special relevance for various reasons.
These are the Second Head of Embassy in London, the post of Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations (New York) and the Consulate General in Caracas (Venezuela). The latter is currently occupied by Juan José Buitrago, who was chief of staff to José Manuel García Margallo when he was foreign minister and later ambassador to Havana.
For the rest of the posts, the Board of the Diplomatic Career, in which the different categories of the diplomatic career are represented, makes a proposal to the minister, who normally accepts it, although on occasion this has not been the case for certain posts.
Some of the Consulates General that are open to competition are those of Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai in China; Casablanca, Tetuan and Nador in Morocco; Algiers in Algeria; Buenos Aires, Mendoza and Bahia Blanca in Argentina; Munich and Hamburg in Germany; Geneva and Bern in Switzerland; St Petersburg in Russia; Montreal and Toronto in Canada; Quito in Ecuador; Melbourne in Australia; Guadalajara and Monterrey in Mexico; Rio de Janeiro in Brazil; and Bayonne and Pau in France.
The post of Consul General in Bayonne was vacant and had not been put out to tender since July 2020, when its holder, Álvaro Alabart, was dismissed, accused of having broken the COVID confinement by moving from France to San Sebastián to go and pick up the two new workers at the official residence. Alabar lodged an appeal against his dismissal.
As for the Second Heads, some of the posts open for competition are those of
The posts of Chargé d’Affaires ad interim in Iceland and Georgia, countries in which Spain has diplomatic antennae, have also been put out to tender, and which are attached to the embassies in Norway and Turkey respectively.
Likewise, for the first time, the posts of Chargé d’Affaires ad interim in Podgorica and Yerevan, the capitals of Montenegro and Armenia, have been advertised, thereby creating diplomatic antennae in those countries.
