Luis Ayllón
Aurora Mejía, who headed the Coordination Office of the Spanish Presidency of the European Union, will be Spain’s next ambassador to Austria, replacing Cristina Fraile, The Diplomat has learned from reliable sources.
Aurora Mejía’s departure was expected, with the end of the six-month Spanish Presidency of the EU, and her name had been mentioned for other embassies, including Berlin, where her husband, Pascual Navarro, until a few days ago State Secretary for the European Union in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has finally gone.
Aurora Mejía is an experienced diplomat who began her career in 1987 and who, before taking up her current post, was already director of the European Union Department of the Cabinet of the Presidency of the Government. And between 2018 and 2020 she had been director general for Western, Central and Southeast Europe at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In addition, she has been Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina; and Ambassador-at-Large for Afghanistan and Pakistan and, as such, member of the International Contact Group for Afghanistan, in 2015 and 2016. Subsequently, she was appointed Deputy Director General for Security in the Directorate General for Foreign and Security Policy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
She has also been Ambassador-at-Large for the Promotion of Gender Equality Policies and Director General of International Legal Cooperation and Relations with Religious Denominations in the Ministry of Justice.
Abroad, she has been posted to Denmark, Brazil, Romania and the Permanent Representation of Spain to NATO.
On the other hand, according to authoritative sources consulted by The Diplomat, it is foreseeable that with the change in the heads of all the State Secretariats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there will be changes in some of the Directorates-General and that those who have been responsible for them until now will move on to head an embassy.
The current director general for Ibero-America, Enrique Yturriaga, is certain to be appointed ambassador to Ecuador, replacing Elena Madrazo.
Yturriaga, who has been a diplomat since 1993, is an expert in Ibero-American affairs, and from 2013 until his appointment as director general a year and a half ago, he was deputy director general for Mercosur countries and Ibero-American multilateral organisations. Previously, between 2008 and 2013, he had been posted to the Embassy in Buenos Aires.
He has also held second posts at the Spanish Embassies in Norway and Romania, and has been posted to the Permanent Representation of Spain to the UN and other International Organisations based in Geneva. He has also been Deputy Director General of International Technical Organisations.
Dolores Ríos, currently Ambassador-at-Large for Migratory Affairs, will be the next Spanish Ambassador to Senegal, replacing Olga Cabarga.
Dolores Ríos, who entered the diplomatic career in 1991, has held various posts related to the African continent, an experience that could prove very useful in her future posting in Dakar. Between 2018 and 2022, she was Spain’s ambassador to Cape Verde, and between 2007 and 2008, deputy director general of Cooperation for Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. She also held the post of second-in-command at the Embassy in Namibia.
She has also been posted in Colombia, Bolivia, Paraguay and Ecuador.
These appointments are part of a broad package of replacements at the head of embassies, which the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has already set in motion, and which will be announced over the coming weeks. At present, three state secretaries from the previous team are awaiting appointment after receiving the corresponding approvals from the countries to which they will be posted: Ángeles Moreno in Washington, Juan Fernández Trigo in Lisbon and Pascual Navarro in Berlin.
