The Diplomat
Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares yesterday held the first telephone conversation with his new Peruvian counterpart, Ana Cecilia Gervasi, since the latter’s arrival to the post, which took place three days after the attempted self-coup of former President Pedro Castillo and his replacement by Dina Boluarte.
“Good conversation with my counterpart Ana Cecilia Gervasi,” Albares stated through his official Twitter account. “Spain and Peru will work together to make the IX Congress of the Spanish Language, to be hosted by Cadiz, a success, taking advantage of what has already been advanced by the Peruvian team,” he continued. “I have reiterated Spain’s support for democracy and the Constitution in Peru,” he added.
Ana Cecilia Gervasi Díaz took office on December 10 and was sworn in by President Boluarte on December 21, replacing César Landa, who resigned from the Ministry after the failed self-coup perpetrated on December 7 by Pedro Castillo.
Throughout her career, Gervasi has held the positions of deputy minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, deputy minister of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism, consul general in Toronto and Washington, D.C., Minister Counselor of the Permanent Mission of Peru to the United Nations in New York, Political Counselor of the Embassy of Peru in Buenos Aires, delegate of Peru to the Permanent Mission of Peru to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva, representative of her country to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and member of the Peruvian negotiating team for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the Free Trade Agreement with the United States.
On December 7, the Spanish Government issued a communiqué in which it “firmly condemned the rupture of constitutional order in Peru” and welcomed “the reestablishment of democratic normality”, following Pedro Castillo’s decision to dissolve the national Congress and decree a government of exception, which led to his dismissal and subsequent arrest. In the same communiqué, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs assured that “Spain will always be on the side of democracy and the defense of constitutional legality”.
On the same day of the self-coup, the Congress of the Republic appointed, by constitutional mandate, the then Vice-President Dina Boluarte as President, who became the first woman to become head of state in Peru. Boluarte has announced her intention to remain in the Presidency until 2026, although she has also assured that she will try to bring forward the general elections to April 2024.
Immediately after the self-coup, the Peruvian ambassador to Spain, Oscar Maúrtua, announced his resignation in disagreement with the actions of Pedro Castillo, but days later he decided to remain in Madrid, exercising his functions as head of the Embassy, while waiting for the new Boluarte government to decide whether to accept his resignation or to ask him to continue in the post.
