Xavier Martí will be appointed today new Under-secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Luis Ayllón The Council of Ministers will today approve the appointment of Xavier Martí Martí, currently Director General of Consular Affairs, as the new Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as The Diplomat has learned from diplomatic sources. Xavier Martí will replace Luis Cuesta, who will also be appointed today as ambassador to Sweden, as The Diplomat has already reported. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has decided to choose a person who has been part of his management team since he arrived at the Ministry in July 2021 to take charge of the head of the Diplomatic Career. Xavier Martí was then appointed director general for Ibero-America and the Caribbean, after having been director of the Cabinet of the Secretary of State for International Cooperation between June 2020 and July 2021; and between September 2018 and June 2020 director of the Technical Cabinet of the Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs, when these posts were held by Ángeles Moreno, a diplomat very close to Albares, and now ambassador to the United States. After just over a year as director general of Ibero-America, in August 2022, Xavier Martí was appointed director general of Spaniards Abroad and Consular Affairs, where he has carried out an intense task. He was born in Ulldecona (Tarragona) in 1980 and entered the diplomatic career in 2006. Since then, he has held various posts related to consular matters, as he was Deputy Assistant Director General for Alien Affairs and Spanish delegate to the Visa Group of the Council of the European Union between 2008 and 2010, and previously served in the Consular Emergency Division. Abroad, he was posted between 2010 and 2017 as Deputy Consul at the Consulates General of Spain in Lima and São Paulo. From 2017 to 2018 he was Second Head of the Spanish Embassy in Kenya and Deputy Permanent Representative to UN-Habitat. The new Under-Secretary holds a degree in Political Science and Administration from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He was awarded the First National Prize for the best academic record in Political Science and Administration by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture, and is the winner of the Extraordinary Prize for his Bachelor's Degree. He has published several articles on consular matters and is co-author, together with Ambassador Jesús Núñez Hernández, of the work ‘La función consular en el Derecho Español’. Xavier Martí will have before him, among other tasks, the task of trying to ensure that the Regulations of the Diplomatic Career finally see the light of day, an objective that all ministers since José Manuel García Margallo have had, but which, for various reasons, has not yet been able to see the light of day. In addition, he will have to deal, as usual, with the various demands that the undersecretary receives from diplomatic associations and also from embassies and, above all, consulates, although the latter is something with which he is very familiar. Luis Cuesta, to Stockholm Luis Cuesta will be appointed ambassador to Stockholm today, after the Swedish authorities have given their approval. Cuesta was the only member of the Ministry's senior staff to remain in the post since Albares' arrival. Appointed undersecretary in July 2021, the Foreign Affairs Minister has rewarded him three years later with an ambassadorship to a European Union country, which had been vacant since March of this year, when the previous incumbent, Cristina Latorre, was appointed ambassador to Turkey. Luis Cuesta has been ambassador to Tanzania and permanent representative ambassador to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), based in Vienna, in addition to having been posted to the Spanish embassies in Bogotá and Rome, where he was Spain's alternate governor to the International Fund for Agricultural Development. From 2005 to 2007, he was diplomatic advisor to the Ministry of Defence, and that last year, the then head of the department, the Socialist José Antonio Alonso, appointed him Secretary General for Defence Policy (Segenpol), a post with the rank of undersecretary, equivalent to number four in the Ministry's civilian leadership. Alonso's successor, Carme Chacón, kept him in the post until 2011. When the PP came to power, he was appointed ambassador to Tanzania. Carolina de Manueles, to Consular Affairs According to sources consulted by The Diplomat, the Directorate General for Spaniards Abroad and Consular Affairs, which will be vacated by Xavier Martí when he is appointed Undersecretary, will be occupied by Carolina de Manueles Álvarez, who has been consul general in Monterrey (Mexico) since August 2022. Born in Salamanca in 1975, she holds a degree in Law from the University of Salamanca, and entered the Diplomatic Career in 2005, precisely as Head of the Consular Emergency Service and later as Technical Advisor in the same Division. Throughout her career, she has held other positions related to consular affairs. Thus, from August 2010 to July 2012 she was Head of the Consular Section of the Spanish Embassy in Tripoli (Libya) and from August 2012 to July 2015 she was Consul General of Spain in Lagos (consular demarcation Nigeria and Benin). Between August 2015 and October 2018, she was first technical advisor for Foreigners and later, vocal advisor for Foreigners, dealing mainly with the visa outsourcing contract and the Ombudsman's complaints. In addition, between November 2018 and July 2022, she was Counsellor for Nuclear Policy and Non-proliferation and Disarmament at the Permanent Representation of Spain to NATO and also held the second position at the Spanish Embassy in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania, with accreditation also in Rwanda and Burundi).

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