Albares appoints eight new ambassadors, including Julio Herráiz to Korea to replace the dismissed Kirkpatrick de la Vega

Eduardo González The Council of Ministers approved the appointment of eight new ambassadors on Tuesday. Among them, Julio Herráiz stands out. He will replace Guillermo Kirkpatrick de la Vega in South Korea, whose dismissal has sparked heated controversy due to alleged political motives. Julio Herráiz, a member of the Diplomatic Service since 1989, has served as Consul General in Bata (Equatorial Guinea) and in the embassies in Israel, Cameroon, Angola, Japan, and China. He has also served as Ambassador Delegate (2014-2019) and President (2017) to the United Nations Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he has held positions in the Directorates General of Protocol and Foreign Policy for Ibero-America. He has served as an advisory member in the cabinet of the State Secretary for International Cooperation, Deputy Assistant Director General for International Technical Organizations, Deputy Director General for International Terrorism Affairs (2011-2014), Advisory Member for Hybrid Threats and Cybersecurity (2019-2020), and Ambassador on Special Mission for the Sahel (2020-2022). Since 2022, he has served (for the second time) as Deputy Head of the Embassy in the People's Republic of China. Herráiz replaces Guillermo Kirkpatrick de la Vega, whose dismissal (like those of Juan González-Barba in Croatia and Alberto Antón in Belgium) was harshly criticized by the Association of Spanish Diplomats (ADE) and the People's Party (PP), which attributed it to political reasons, specifically for having met with the President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, without seeking authorization from his superiors. In February, sources from the ADE denounced the "arbitrary" dismissal of five ambassadors before completing their three-year term for political reasons, including the three mentioned above. The People´s Party Parliamentary Group in Congress asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, at the end of April if "the government will continue to dismiss and appoint ambassadors without clear regulations and with criteria based on political affiliations." In response to these accusations, Albares accused the People’s Party of "politicizing the diplomatic career." Around the same time, the government had already requested approval for the successors of Juan González-Barba, Alberto Antón, and Guillermo Kirkpatrick de la Vega. Other Appointments On the other hand, the Government has appointed new ambassadors to Cameroon, Estonia, Gabon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. In Cameroon, the new ambassador is Juan Pedro Pérez-Gómez. A member of the Diplomatic Service since 2007, from 2001 to 2004 he worked in the OSCE missions in Kosovo and Albania. Abroad, he held deputy chief positions in Haiti and Gabon, where he was Chargé d'Affaires Ad Interim for seven months; deputy consul at the Spanish Consulate General in Moscow; and cultural and scientific advisor in Colombia. At the Ministry, he served in the Cabinet of Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos and in the Deputy Directorates General for Security and Peacekeeping Operations and Sub-Saharan Africa. Lastly, he served as Deputy Assistant Director General for Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. The new ambassador to Estonia is Ángel María Vázquez Díaz de Tuesta. A career diplomat since 1988, he has held numerous diplomatic and consular posts, both in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in embassies and consulates. In Spain, he served as Deputy Director of the Minister's Office (1999-2002), Deputy Deputy Director of Foreign Affairs (2006), Secretary General of Casa Sefarad-Israel (2007-2009), Advisory Member in the President's Office (2009-2011), Deputy Director General of the Diplomatic Information Office (2011-2012), and Advisory Member in the Directorate General for North America, Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Pacific (2020-2022). Abroad, he served at the Spanish embassies in Israel (1991), France (1994), and Russia (2002), and served as Spanish ambassador to Bolivia (2012-2017) and consul general in Sao Paulo (2017) and Rio de Janeiro (2022). Rafael Chaves is the new ambassador to Gabon. A member of the Diplomatic Service since 2005, he served at the Spanish embassies in Berlin, Guatemala (on two separate occasions, as deputy chief), and Lisbon. In the central services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he worked in the Subdirectorate for Bilateral Economic Relations with Developing Countries and the Subdirectorate for Bilateral Economic Relations with European Countries, and in the Directorate-General for Foreign Policy for Ibero-America. He also served as coordinator of Justice and Home Affairs in the Directorate-General for Integration and Coordination of General Affairs of the European Union. The new ambassador to Lithuania is José Fernando Fernández-Aguayo. He joined the diplomatic service in 1997 and served in the embassies of Norway, Germany, Indonesia, and the Netherlands. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he worked in the Office of the State Secretary for Foreign Policy and the European Union, and, in the field of development cooperation, in the Directorate-General for Development Policies (DGPOLDE) and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID). From 2018 to 2020, he served as a diplomatic advisor in the Office of the Minister of Science, Innovation, and Universities. Since November 2021, he has served as Deputy Director-General of the Human Rights Office. In Luxembourg, the new ambassador is María Nieves Blanco. A member of the Spanish Diplomatic Service since 2005, she has extensive experience in security issues, having served for eight years at the Permanent Representation of Spain to NATO (2015-2018 and previously from 2007-2012). She worked as a member of the Advisory Board for Migration Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 2012 and 2015 and at the Spanish Consulate General in Havana from 2005 to 2007. Between 2018 and 2020, she led the cultural programming team at Casa de América. Until 2022, she served as Cultural Counselor at the Spanish Embassy in Hungary, and from that year until now, she served as Spanish Ambassador to Lithuania. Paloma Serra is the new ambassador to Tanzania. She joined the diplomatic service in 2005, holding deputy leadership positions at the Embassies in Ivory Coast, Cape Verde, and South Africa. She was also Cultural Counselor in South Africa, Head of Consular Affairs and Political Counselor in India, and Deputy Consul in Jerusalem. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she served as Head of Service in the Technical General Secretariat, Head of the Evaluation and Prevention Office of the Humanitarian Action Office at AECID, Technical Advisor in the Consular Emergency Unit of the Directorate General for Spaniards Abroad and Consular Affairs, and Advisory Member in the Office of the Secretary of State for Ibero-America, the Caribbean, and Spanish in the World. Finally, María Lourdes Sangróniz is the head of the Embassy in Zimbabwe. A career diplomat with 25 years of service, she worked on European Union affairs in the Ministry's central services, specifically in the Office of the General Secretariat for Foreign Policy and the European Union from 2000 to 2002, as Deputy Assistant Director-General for Justice and Home Affairs at the State Secretariat for the European Union from 2010 to 2012, and currently as Deputy Assistant Director-General for EU Foreign Affairs and Trade Affairs at the Directorate-General for Integration and Coordination of General EU Affairs. Abroad, she was Deputy Head of the Spanish Embassy in Zimbabwe (2002-2005), Counselor at the Spanish Embassy in Berlin (domestic policy and EU Justice and Home Affairs) (2005-2010), Deputy Head of the Spanish Embassy in Stockholm (2012-2017) and Deputy Head of the Spanish Embassy in Bogotá (2027-2021).

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