Eduardo González
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has removed the “asterisk” from the Spanish Embassy in Managua and, instead, has assigned it to the Embassy in Algiers and the Consulate General of Spain in Mexico.
The “asterisk” serves to mark the positions that the Government considers most sensitive and in which the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, does not need to know the opinion of the Diplomatic Career Board to decide the names of the people who fill them.
This Friday, the Diplomatic Career Board (a consultative body formed by diplomats) approved the call for vacant positions abroad, the so-called ‘bombo’ in diplomatic jargon.
Specifically, the call covers, among the destinations with an asterisk, the second head in the Embassy in Washington, Rabat and Caracas and the Consulates General of Spain in Miami, Caracas and Havana.
It also includes the second head in Managua, from which the “asterisk” will be removed, which will instead be assigned to the second head in Algiers and the Consulate General of Spain in Mexico, according to diplomatic sources indicated to The Diplomat.
José Manuel Albares assigned the “asterisk” for the first time to the second head in Managua in 2022, in the midst of the repressive measures of the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, against the opposition and after the Spanish Government refused to recognize the presidential elections of November 2021. Thanks to this measure, Albares was able to appoint the number two of the Embassy without having to previously listen to the Board of the Diplomatic Career.
In the 2024 call for applications, there were thirteen positions marked with an “asterisk” in Embassies and Consulates before the distribution of vacancies abroad, which exempted Albares from waiting to know the shortlist proposed by the Board before deciding on the appointments.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a list of 34 positions with an “asterisk”. In this regard, the aforementioned sources assured The Diplomat that the number of destinations with an “asterisk” has gone from the 39 of the previous Government of Mariano Rajoy to the current 34.
