Luis Ayllón
The Mexican government has already approved appointment of Juan Duarte, the current director general of Spaniards Abroad and Consular Affairs, as Spain’s new ambassador to the Mexican capital, The Diplomat has learned from reliable sources.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has taken less than two months to give his authorisation for the appointment of the new Spanish diplomatic representative, which could take place at a forthcoming Council of Ministers, according to the same sources.
López Obrador has not responded in kind to Spain, which took nearly three months to give the go-ahead to the ambassador appointed by Mexico, Quirino Ordaz, an excessively long time for customs between two countries with such close relations.
Although López Obrador had announced in September last year that he had chosen Ordaz, a former governor of Sinaloa and member of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), to take charge of the Embassy in Madrid, it was not until the beginning of November that he presented the request for permission to the Spanish authorities.
The government of Pedro Sánchez did not grant the plácet until the end of January, in a gesture that was interpreted as a desire to reflect discomfort at the Mexican president’s continued anti-Spanish statements, especially in relation to Spain’s role in the conquest of the Aztec country.
Subsequently, and despite López Obrador’s other controversial statements on the actions of Spanish companies in Mexico, the tension eased following a trip to the country in March by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares.
On 23 May, The Diplomat reported that the government had chosen Juan Duarte to be the new ambassador to Mexico, replacing Juan López-Doriga. However, it was not until July that Spain formally asked the Mexican authorities for their approval, which was granted in the second half of August.
The government could now decide on the appointment of the new ambassador at the Council of Ministers tomorrow, the 30th, or in one of the first weeks of September.
A diplomat since 1994 and very close to the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Ángeles Moreno, Juan Duarte is the only high-ranking official in the Ministry who has remained in the same post after Arancha González Laya was replaced by Albares as head of the department.
As head of Consular Affairs for the last four years, he has carried out an intense task, especially in the assistance provided by the Spanish Consulates to compatriots in different countries during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Juan Duarte, who when the UK’s exit from the EU was consummated, was the coordinator of the One Stop Shop for Brexit, set up at the Embassy in London to attend to the needs of Spaniards living in that country, has also been posted to the Spanish diplomatic representations in Ethiopia, Slovakia, France, Colombia and Argentina. He has also been director of the Human Rights Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
