Luis Ayllón
The ’embabombo’, that is, the call to access an ambassador position in one of the representations of Spain abroad, saw the light this Wednesday, and includes a total of fifteen Embassies.
Formally, the Minister of Foreign Affairs has no obligation to put these Heads of Mission out to tender, because the Regulations of the Diplomatic Career have not yet been approved, but since the end of the year it was expected that the call would take place. Now, finally, the list of Embassies in which the head will be replaced has been made known.
Among the fifteen embassies put out to tender are those of Australia and Norway, currently occupied by Alicia Moral and José Ramón García, respectively, and who have been in their positions for three and a half years. In addition, three European embassies are part of the list – Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Slovenia -, three African ones – Ivory Coast, Ghana and Guinea Bissau -, three Asian ones – Kazakhstan, Iraq and Kuwait – and four Latin American ones, which are El Salvador, Jamaica, Trinidad and Togabo, along with Bolivia, which is now without an ambassador after Javier Gassó was recently appointed general director for Ibero-America in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Among the diplomats there was a certain expectation to know which Embassies were going to be put out to tender, because since the new Government of Pedro Sánchez was formed, there have already been some appointments of ambassadors in important destinations and The Diplomat has been reporting on others that will occur in the coming months, such as those in Havana (Javier Hergueta), Teheran (Antonio Sánchez Benedito), Ankara (Cristina Latorre) or Moscow (Ricardo Martínez).
Diplomats who aspire to one of the ’embabombo’ positions will be able to present their candidacy until the 21st. The applications will be evaluated by the Ministry’s Steering Committee – made up of the secretaries of State, the undersecretary and the minister’s cabinet director. – who will prepare a shortlist to be presented to the head of the Department. And finally, it will be Albares himself who will make the decision so that approvals are requested from the different countries.
