Luis Ayllón
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has already begun to appoint the diplomats who will cover the around fifty embassies that are expected to change ambassadors this year.
As The Diplomat has learned from reliable sources, among the appointments is that of Jorge Moragas, former director of Mariano Rajoy’s Cabinet when he was Prime Minister, who will take charge of the embassy in Tanzania, with multiple accreditation in Rwanda and Burundi. He will replace Francisca Pedrós.
Moragas, a diplomat since 1995, left his post at Moncloa in December 2017 to be appointed permanent representative of Spain to the UN, a post in which he remained for only eight months, until shortly after the arrival of Pedro Sánchez to the Presidency of the Government. In September 2018, he was appointed ambassador to the Philippines, which is his current post.
For his part, Ramiro Fernández Bachiller will be the new ambassador to Poland, replacing Javier Sanabria, who had been in the post since October 2017.
Fernández Bachiller was currently Chief Inspector General of Services in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has an extensive professional career since joining the diplomatic service in 1989. He has been Ambassador to Gabon and Romania, as well as Ambassador-at-Large for the Spanish Presidency of the European Union between 2009 and 2011 and Ambassador-at-Large-Director of the Consular Emergency Unit between 2013 and 2014.
Likewise, Guillermo Kirkpatrick, currently Ambassador to Honduras, will become Ambassador to South Korea, taking over from Ignacio Morro.
Kirkpatrick, who joined the diplomatic service in 1992, was already posted as ‘number two’ in Seoul between 2008 and 2010, when he moved to the same post at the embassy in Caracas. He has also been deputy director general for international disarmament affairs and deputy director general for Andean countries.
The appointment of José Antonio de Ory as ambassador to Pakistan, where he will replace Manuel Durán, is also certain.
A diplomat since 1990, José Antonio de Ory is currently Ambassador-at-Large for Peace and Inclusive Security Missions and Operations. Among other posts, he has been Counsellor at the Embassy in Tokyo, Director of Programming at Casa América, ‘number two’ at the Permanent Representation to UNESCO and Deputy Director General for Bilateral Economic Relations with Europe and OECD countries.
For Singapore, the minister has chosen Mercedes Alonso Frayle, who was consul general in Düsseldorf and, since entering the diplomatic service in 1988, has been, among other things, consul in London and consul general in Manila, as well as serving as deputy heads of embassies in Senegal, Panama and Brazil. He replaces Santiago Miralles.
Likewise, the new ambassador to Cameroon, replacing Ramón Moreno, is Ignacio García Lumbreras, who is currently posted in Kenya, after having served for a short time as deputy director general for European Union countries. He has been a diplomat since 2004 and has been posted in Sao Paulo, Dublin and Quito.
In recent weeks, according to the sources consulted, the government has asked various countries for their approval for the replacement of ambassadors, mainly to fill the thirty or so posts that were put out to tender last December. This group includes some important embassies, such as Brazil, in Latin America, and several in Europe, including Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, Finland, Lithuania, Belgium, Luxembourg and Ireland.
The intention, it seems, is that the appointments can be made in time for the new ambassadors to take up their posts over the summer.
In addition to these thirty embassies, there are a further twenty that have not been put out to tender, including some of great importance for Spanish foreign policy. This is the case of the United States, China, Mexico, Italy, Portugal, NATO and the United Nations in New York.
Other embassies that were not put out to tender have already been assigned, such as the Vatican, where the former Minister of Education and former government spokesperson Isabel Celaá was appointed, Argentina (María Jesús Alonso), Denmark (Victoria González Román) and the Netherlands (Consuelo Femenía). To these should be added Poland, which was also not put out to tender, and Jordan, which was pending from last year and for which Miguel de Lucas will be appointed when the go-ahead arrives.
On the other hand, several ambassadors have received indications from the highest levels of the ministry that, despite the fact that they would have to be replaced due to the time elapsed since their appointment, they will not be replaced this year, for various reasons. This is the case with Morocco, where Ricardo Díaz Hochleitner, who has been in the post for nearly seven years and may remain in it until his retirement in June 2023, given the current state of relations with Rabat, will continue.
The stay of the ambassador to Algiers, Fernando Morán, has also been extended, a decision that was taken before the change in the government’s policy on Western Sahara, which has caused unease among the Algerian authorities.
Finally, the ambassador to Germany, Ricardo Martínez, will remain in his post until the end of Spain’s presidency of the European Union, scheduled for the second half of 2023.
