Eduardo González
The Council of Ministers appointed Javier María Carbajosa as Spanish Ambassador to Yemen on Tuesday, residing in Riyadh. He has also been the Ambassador to Saudi Arabia since March 2022.
The government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero opened the Spanish Embassy in 2006, with Marcos Vega as its first ambassador, but the government of Mariano Rajoy closed it in 2012, when the ambassador was Francisco Javier Hergueta (since 2010), for economic reasons and due to the armed conflict.
Since then, Spain has had a Chargé d’Affaires at the European Union Delegation in Sana’a. Furthermore, the coordination meetings organized by the EU are monitored from the Spanish Embassies in Amman and Riyadh, while the consular powers corresponding to the consular demarcation of Yemen have been assigned to Cairo. When the civil war broke out in 2015, the government decided to repatriate all its staff in Yemen.
Despite the closure of the embassy, the government did not appoint a non-resident ambassador until June 2024, when the Council of Ministers appointed Jorge Hevia as its representative in Sana’a, residing in Riyadh. He will be replaced by Javier María Carbajosa.
A law graduate and member of the Diplomatic Service in 1985, Carbajosa has served in the Spanish embassies in Mauritania, Belgium, Ecuador, and the United States, and has held the position of Deputy Chief of Staff in the Spanish embassies in the United Kingdom and Algeria.
Within the central services in Madrid, he has held various responsibilities: Deputy Director General for the Middle East, Advisor to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and Ambassador on the Special Mission for Migration Issues.
He also served as ambassador to Pakistan (2012-2015) and Trinidad and Tobago (2017-2020), and was also accredited as ambassador to Barbados, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Guyana, and Suriname. He was subsequently appointed Consul General of Spain in Sydney before being appointed Spanish ambassador to Qatar in the summer of 2022, where he served until March 2022, when he was appointed Spanish ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where he currently works.
Separately, the Council of Ministers also appointed Jaime Moreno Bau as ambassador to Uganda, with residence in Kenya, and Paloma Serra as ambassador to Burundi, with residence in Tanzania.
