The Diplomat in Spain

The Diplomat

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, will today complete the leadership of his Department, with the appointment of three new State Secretaries: Diego Martínez Belio (Foreign and Global Affairs); Fernando Sampedro (European Union) and Susana Sumelzo (Latin America, the Caribbean and Spanish in the World), who join Eva Granados, appointed a couple of weeks ago as head of International Cooperation.

Albares thus surrounds himself with socialist militants and people he trusts in his most direct team. Only Martínez Belio, who has been Albares’ chief of staff since he took office in July 2021, belongs to the diplomatic service. Of the other three state secretaries, two -Susana Sumelzo and Eva Granados- have been parliamentarians; and the third, Fernando Sampedro Marcos, is secretary for European Affairs and Electoral Action, in PSOE Europe, which encompasses the socialist groupings on the European continent.

Sampedro, who has been involved in international affairs for nearly two decades, is currently a member of the Cabinet of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and is therefore very familiar with issues affecting Spain and its relationship with the European Union. He will replace Pascual Navarro, who will be the new ambassador in Berlin.

For her part, Susana Sumelzo, a law graduate and a person very close to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, is currently a Member of Parliament for Zaragoza and sits on the Foreign Affairs, International Development Cooperation and Culture Committees of Congress, and is a full member of the Spanish delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

She was previously a senator in the 9th Legislature and a member of parliament in the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th legislatures. In the previous legislature she was president of the Joint Congress-Senate Committee on the EU and spokesperson for Public Administrations, Equality, International Cooperation and deputy spokesperson for the Interior in Congress. In Pedro Sánchez’s first PSOE Executive, she was Secretary for Public Administration.

As for Diego Martínez Belío, who will be appointed State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, replacing Ángeles Moreno, future ambassador to Washington, he has been a diplomat since 2007 and was called by Albares to take charge of the direction of his Cabinet, as soon as he arrived at the palace of Santa Cruz.

Martínez Belío, who was also director of the Cabinet of the State Secretary for the EU, is a man of full confidence in the minister, with whom he worked in Moncloa as a member advisor in the Directorate of European Affairs and G20, when this post was under the responsibility of Albares. He has previously been posted in Equatorial Guinea as ‘number two’ and in Morocco, as deputy consul in Casablanca.

To fill the vacancy left as head of his Cabinet, Albares has opted for Sergio Cuesta, a diplomat since 2008, who has been ambassador to Haiti from August 2021, after having also worked with the current foreign minister during his time as head of the Coordination Unit of the Department of European Affairs and G20.

Furthermore, according to eldiario.es, Marta Betanzos, until now ambassador in Lisbon, will be appointed ambassador in Beijing, replacing Rafael Dezcallar, once the Chinese authorities give their approval.