The Diplomat
The Peruvian government, headed by Pedro Castillo, has asked the Spanish authorities for teir placet to appoint diplomat and former foreign minister Óscar Maúrtua de Romaña as ambassador to Madrid.
According to the Peruvian daily El Comercio, Peru is waiting for Spain to give its authorisation for the appointment of Maúrtua, whom Castillo chose to take over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in August 2021, replacing the 85-year-old sociologist and former guerrilla fighter Héctor Béjar. Bejar had to step down just 19 days after being appointed, after claiming that the beginning of terrorism in the country was provoked by the navy.
Óscar Maúrtua, a 75-year-old veteran diplomat, was not at the helm of the Peruvian Foreign Ministry for long either, having been replaced in February this year by César Landa, former president of the Constitutional Court.
Now Castillo wants to send him to head Peru’s diplomatic mission in Madrid, a post that has been vacant for eight months, when the previous ambassador, Claudio Julio de la Puente, left it.
Maúrtua entered the diplomatic career more than 50 years ago, from which he is now retired, during which time he was for the first time Foreign Minister under President Alejandro Toledo, in 2005 and 2006, and Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic during Fernando Belaúnde’s second term in office. In addition, among other things, he has been ambassador to Ecuador, Canada, Bolivia and Thailand, and representative of the Organisation of American States (OAS) in Mexico.
