The Diplomat
Yesterday, the Council of Ministers appointed ambassadors in the Special Mission for Migration Affairs, on the one hand, and for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, on the other, Pilar Méndez and Alberto Cerezo, respectively.
Pilar Méndez, graduated in Law from the Pontifical University of Comillas (ICADE). A diplomat since 2001, she has served in the Spanish Embassies in Haiti, Japan and Singapore and in the Consulate General of Spain in Miami (USA). In these missions abroad she has served as second-in-command, cultural advisor, head of the consular section and deputy consul.
In the central services she was head of Service in the General Directorate of Europe, technical advisor for Cooperation at the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and technical advisor at the Secretariat of State for the European Union. In the last decade, she has been an advisory member in the Ministry of the Presidency and in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs she held the position of deputy director general of Eastern Europe and Central Asia between 2011-2013. Between September 2018 and August 2020 she was deputy director general for East and South Asia. She was later appointed Spanish ambassador to Vietnam. She is in possession of the Official Cross of Isabel La Católica (2004) and the Commendation of the Order of Civil Merit (2011).
For his part, Alberto Cerezo, with a degree in Law from the San Pablo CEU University and a degree in Political Science from the Complutense University, has been a career diplomat since June 2001. He has been stationed at the Spanish Embassies in Cameroon (2003-2006). and Mozambique (2009-2012), where he served as Second Headquarters, as well as in Paraguay (2006-2009), as person in charge of consular affairs, and China, as advisor (2017).
In 2014 he was the first Spanish diplomat accredited to the Burmese authorities, as Chargé d’Affaires a.i., with residence in Yangon (Myanmar), responsible for opening Spain’s first diplomatic office in that country. As Chargé d’Affaires a.i he has also served at the Embassy of Mozambique between September and November 2019.
He has also been head of service in the Subdirectorate General of North Africa (2002) and advisory member in the Department of International Affairs of the Cabinet of the President of the Government, in charge of North African affairs (2012-2014) and deputy director general of Bilateral relations with the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa (2017-2020). Later he was ambassador of Spain in the Republic of Mozambique.
