The Diplomat
The departure of all the state secretaries from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the arrival of their replacements has also led to the replacement of the various heads of Cabinet.
The Diplomat has learned that Diego Martínez Belío, the new State Secretary for Foreign and Global Affairs, has chosen María Luisa Benítez-Donoso, a diplomat who was until now a member of the Deputy Directorate General for North America, and who has previously been ‘number two’ in the Embassies in Honduras and Croatia and political advisor in the EU delegation in Brasilia, as the head of his Cabinet.
Benítez-Donoso replaces Marta Vadillo, who has just been seconded to the Spanish Consulate General in Naples, a decision that has caused some diplomats some surprise, as they consider that there were other candidates for this temporary post with more seniority and experience to fill it.
As for the State Secretariat for Ibero-America, the Caribbean and Spanish in the World, for which Susana Sumelzo is responsible, sources consulted by The Diplomat indicated that the head of her Cabinet will be the diplomat Daniel Losada.
The new head of Cabinet will fill the vacancy left by María Salcedo, who already occupies the second post at the Spanish Embassy in Mexico. Daniel Losada was already assigned to the Cabinet of the State Secretary and has previously been Consul General in Lagos (Nigeria), as well as ‘number two’ at the Spanish Embassy in Baghdad. He has also been posted to Mexico.
The State Secretary for International Cooperation, Eva Granados, has chosen to put Nuria Pérez Llavero, who, like her, does not belong to the diplomatic career, at the head of her Cabinet.
Nuria Pérez Llavero is a person of full confidence in Eva Granados, with whom she worked when she was second vice-president of the Parliament of Catalonia and, later, when she was spokesperson for the Socialist Parliamentary Group in the Spanish Senate.
As for the new State Secretary for the European Union, Fernando Sampedro, the departure of Miguel Alonso Berrio, who has held the post for the last two years, is considered a certainty.
