Luis Ayllón
The government has chosen diplomat Juan Duarte Cuadrado to be Spain’s new ambassador to Mexico, replacing Juan López-Doriga, who has held the post since August 2018, The Diplomat has learned from reliable sources.
Juan Duarte is currently director general of Spaniards Abroad and Consular Affairs, a post he took up in September 2018 and in which he has carried out an intense task, especially in the assistance provided from Spanish Consulates to compatriots in different countries during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A member of the diplomatic career since 1994, Duarte is considered to be very close to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Ángeles Moreno, with whom he coincided at the Spanish Embassy in London. There, where he held the post of political counsellor, in charge of EU affairs, he was the coordinator of the One-Stop Shop for Brexit, set up in the diplomatic representation in the United Kingdom to attend to the needs of Spaniards living in that country when the decision to leave the European Union was consummated.
He has also been posted to the Spanish Embassies in Ethiopia, Slovakia, France, Colombia and Argentina. He has also been director of the Human Rights Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and head of the Cultural Programmes and Agreements Area in the Secretariat of State for Cooperation and Ibero-America.
The changeover at the Embassy in Mexico will take place shortly after the dispute between Spain and Mexico has been resolved, on the occasion of the appointment of the new Mexican ambassador in Madrid, Quirino Ordaz.
Ordaz, who has been in Madrid since mid-April and is waiting to present his credentials to the King, had to wait seven months for his appointment since it was announced. This delay was influenced by the Spanish authorities’ tardiness in granting the approval requested by Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s government, after he insisted on his attacks on Spain.
In spite of everything, the Spanish government is confident that the response from the Mexican authorities, once it has requested permission to appoint Juan Duarte, will not take longer than is customary between two countries with very strong historical and economic ties.
Juan Duarte is the only director general appointed by the previous Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González-Laya, who has been kept in the same post until now by the current head of the Department, José Manuel Albares.
According to other sources consulted by The Diplomat, his post could be filled by Xavier Martí, the current director general for Latin America, who was director of Ángeles Moreno’s Cabinet when she was undersecretary of Foreign Affairs and later secretary of State for International Cooperation.
Martí has consular experience, as he began his career as a diplomat in 2006 in the Directorate General for Consular Affairs, and subsequently served as deputy consul in Lima and Sao Paulo.
According to the same sources, the vacancy left by Martí as Director General for Ibero-America would be filled by Juan López-Doriga, once he leaves the Embassy in Mexico.
López-Doriga, who has been a diplomat since 1986, has extensive experience in Latin America, where he has also been ambassador to Guatemala and ‘number two’ in Costa Rica. He has also been Director General of Cooperation with Latin America and Director of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation and Director General of Planning and Evaluation of Development Policies. He has also been Spain’s ambassador to Tunisia.
