The Diplomat
The Council of Ministers yesterday appointed Miguel Bauzá to the post of Spanish Ambassador to New Zealand. Likewise, it appointed Ignacio García Lumbreras to head the Embassy in Cameroon and Natividad Isabel Peña to the Embassy in Zimbabwe, as The Diplomat advanced.
Miguel Bauzá, born in Barcelona, graduated in Law at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in 1977 and entered the Diplomatic Career in 1980. He has been posted to the Spanish embassies in China, the Philippines, Turkey, Tunisia and Denmark, in the last three as second-in-command, and has been consul in Zurich and Basel, Beijing, Moscow and currently has been consul in Hong Kong/Macao since 2018. In 2004, he became Spain’s first resident ambassador to Estonia.
In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he has always worked at the European level, first in charge of Mediterranean policy and the European Economic Area (EEA) negotiations and subsequently of the enlargement negotiations and the follow-up of the General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC). He has also been second in the cabinet of the Secretary of State for the EU and deputy director general for Candidate Countries, EEA and other European countries in the Directorate General for Europe. In June of this year he was promoted to the rank of ambassador.
Ignacio García Lumbreras, born on November 27, 1977, holds a degree in Law (2000) and in Business Administration and Management (2001) from the Universidad Pontificia Comillas. He entered the diplomatic career in December 2003.
In the central services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he has been posted in the Deputy Directorate General for Western Europe (head of service and later head of area, 2004-2007), in the Deputy Directorate General for Andean Countries (technical advisor, 2013-2015) and in the Deputy Directorate General for EU Countries (2019-2021, head of area and later deputy director general). Abroad, he has been posted at the Consulate General in Sao Paulo (deputy consul, 2007-2010), at the Embassy in Dublin (counselor, 2010-2013), at the Consulate General in Quito (deputy consul, 2016-2019), and currently at the Embassy of Spain in Kenya (Embassy secretary).
Likewise, Natividad Isabel Peña, currently deputy director general for Bilateral Relations with Sub-Saharan African Countries, will be the new ambassador to Zimbabwe. Born in Zaragoza on January 18, 1973, she holds a degree in Law from the University of Zaragoza. She entered the diplomatic career in 2006. Abroad she has been posted in the diplomatic representations of Spain in Angola, United Kingdom and Mozambique.
In the central services, from 2006 to 2009 she worked in the Directorate General of Foreign Communication of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as head of service, head of area, technical advisor and director of division, consecutively. After a brief stint at the deputy directorate general for Bilateral Relations with European Union Countries of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2018, upon her return from abroad, she was appointed deputy assistant director for Relations with Sub-Saharan African Countries in 2019. Since 2020, she was deputy director general in the general directorate for Africa of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
