Luis Ayllón
Diplomat Mercedes Rico Carabias, the first woman to be appointed ambassador to Spain, died yesterday in Madrid at the age of 77, sources told The Diplomat.
Daughter of journalist Josefina Carabias and a graduate in Political Science and Economics, Mercedes Rico entered the diplomatic service in 1973, the third woman to do so, nine years after Franco’s regime lifted the ban on women becoming diplomats.
In 1983, after serving in the embassies in Cuba and the United Nations (New York), she was appointed by the Socialist government of Felipe González as Director General of Foreign Policy for Latin America, and two years later, Spanish Ambassador to Costa Rica, where she remained until 1987.
In this way, Mercedes Rico became the first woman to head a Spanish embassy. Subsequently, between 1994 and 1996, she was also ambassador to Italy; and between 2008 and 2011, ambassador to Ireland.
From 1998 to 2001, she also held the post of Deputy Permanent Representative for Disarmament Affairs at the Permanent Representation of Spain to the United Nations and International Organisations based in Geneva; and from 2001 to 2004 she was the Inspector General of Services at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Throughout her career, she has held various positions of responsibility in the Ministry, usually coinciding with periods of PSOE government. She was Deputy Director General of the Human Rights Office from 1987 until 1991, when she was appointed Director General of Foreign Policy for Europe and North America. She remained in that post until her appointment as ambassador to Rome.
During the governments of José María Aznar, Mercedes Rico was very critical of the foreign policy that was being developed, especially with regard to Iraq. She claimed that ‘the fracture in the foreign policy consensus hurt many in the ministry, even civil servants who had less ideological affiliation [than me]’.
In 2002, she took the step of joining the PSOE and two years later, the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero appointed her Director General for Religious Affairs in the Ministry of Justice, a post she held until her appointment to the last Spanish embassy she was in charge of, that of Ireland, between 2008 and 2011.
