The Diplomat
Diplomat Cristina Borreguero is the new deputy director general for EU countries in the General Directorate of Western, Central and Southeastern Europe, diplomatic sources informed The Diplomat.
Cristina Borreguero, who fills the vacancy left by Teresa Orjales -appointed ambassador of Spain in Mozambique-, was until now assigned as an advisor in the Cabinet of the State Secretary of the EU.
A diplomat since 2008, she also worked in the General Subdirectorate of Candidate Countries and was a counselor in the Permanent Representation of Spain to the EU, in addition to having been assigned between 2011 and 2014 in the Balkans Division of the European External Action Service, in Brussels. .
The name of Cristina Borreguero came to the fore at the end of 2019, when she occupied the Second Head at the Spanish Embassy in La Paz, due to the decision adopted by the interim president of Bolivia, Jeanine Áñez, to decree her expulsion and that of the consul, Álvaro Fernández, after going to the residence of the Mexican ambassador in the Bolivian capital, where some collaborators of the previous president, Evo Morales, were taking refuge.
Cristina Borreguero, who at that time was acting as Chargé d’Affaires because the ambassador was absent, went to the residence following instructions from the Spanish Government to try to promote mediation for a way out of the crisis that the Andean country was experiencing. She did so accompanied by several GEO police officers, who remained outside the residence and who were also expelled. Spain reacted with the expulsion of three members of the Bolivian Embassy in Madrid, including the chargé d’affaires. The bilateral crisis remained open until August 2020, when the two governments exchanged chargé d’affaires, and relations were not fully normalized until the end of that year, with the appointment of two ambassadors, after the victory of Luis Arce in the presidential elections.
