Luis Ayllón
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, is preparing a wide-ranging package of ambassadorial replacements, which will affect some of the most important diplomatic representations, such as those of the United States, Morocco, Germany, Portugal and Algeria, as of January.
Once confirmed as head of Spanish diplomacy, one of the tasks that Albares will have to tackle is the changes at the head of some embassies, where the incumbents had seen their stay extended both because Spain is in an interim period and because our country holds the Presidency of the Council of the EU.
Albares had already informed some of these ambassadors, even before the general elections were called on 23 July, that they would continue in their posts throughout the six-month presidency, despite the fact that they had already been at the helm of an embassy for longer than the usual four years, which, in the case of the most important ones, is four years.
This was the case, for example, with the ambassadors in Berlin, Ricardo Martínez, who has held the post since October 2018; in Algiers, Fernando Morán, who has been in the post since September of the same year; or in Lisbon, where Marta Betanzos has been since August 2018.
The current ambassador in Washington, Santiago Cabanas, who will also reach retirement age in March 2024, was also appointed in the summer of five years ago.
The most atypical case is that of Ricardo Díaz-Hochleitner, who has been at the head of the embassy in Rabat since June 2015 and who also reached the age of 70, i.e. retirement age, on 30 June.
The ambassadors to Ethiopia, Manuel Salazar, and to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Carlos Robles Fraga, also remain in their posts despite having reached retirement age.
In any case, the appointments to the most important embassies will have to be discussed by Albares with the president of the government, Pedro Sánchez. There is particular interest in knowing who will be chosen to go to Rabat and Algiers, at a time when Spain is trying to return to normal relations with Algeria and has just given the go-ahead for a new Algerian ambassador in Madrid, twenty months after that country’s president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, recalled the previous ambassador in protest at the Spanish government’s turnaround on Western Sahara.
Another important post to be filled is that of Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, which has been vacant since Agustín Santos left to run on Sumar’s electoral lists. This appointment could come even before the end of the year, as it does not require the same kind of approval as for ambassadors in different countries.
Among the candidates to occupy one of these Embassies will be the current State Secretaries most of whom have expressed their desire to go abroad, which will make Albares have to remodel the leadership of his Ministry. The current State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Ángeles Moreno, was long suggested as a possible replacement for Santiago Cabanas in Washington, which would make her the first female ambassador of Spain to the United States, although she could also be in the United Nations, a position for which, likewise, the name of Emma Aparici, current director general of the Department of Foreign Affairs in the Office of the President of the Government, has circulated through the Ministry.
As for Juan Fernández Trigo, State Secretary of Ibero-America, his natural destination could be some Ibero-American country, but the Embassies in the most important capitals, such as Mexico, Brasilia or Buenos Aires, have been occupied not long ago. Another possible destination would be Lisbon, although the Ministry suggests that the Secretary of State of the European Union, Pascual Navarro, would also be interested in being ambassador to Portugal.
In any case, these movements are nothing more than rumors circulating in the Department headed by José Manuel Albares, which, apparently, has no intention of making decisions until the European Presidency ends.
It is only expected that eleven ambassadors will be appointed in the coming weeks, because they have already been given the approval, and who were chosen before the elections on 23 July, could also be imminent. If, as expected, there are no changes, the appointments will be as follows, as reported by The Diplomat: Juan José Sanz, in Serbia; Carmen Cano, in Vietnam; Gabriel Sistiaga, in Bangladesh; Álvaro Albacete, in Libya; Guillermo López Mac-Lellan, in Ethiopia; Teresa Orjales, in Mozambique; Javier Conde y Martínez de Irujo, in Equatorial Guinea; Carmen Díaz Orejas, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ángel Carrascal, in Guinea Conakry; Antonio Guillén, in Mali; and Gloria Mínguez, in Niger.
