Eduardo González
A total of fifteen veteran diplomats have been promoted to the professional category of Ambassador, according to the Royal Decrees published yesterday by the Official State Gazette. Among those promoted are former Secretary of State Ramón Gil-Casares, former director of the Diplomatic School Enrique Viguera, former EU envoy for the Sahel Ángel Losada and the current ambassador to the United States, Santiago Cabanas.
Most of the promoted diplomats (all of them First Class plenipotentiary ministers, the category immediately below that of ambassador, although with the capacity to be accredited as representative of their State in another country) have been or are currently at the head of a head of mission or have held positions of responsibility in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or in international organizations. Among them there are only two women, Aurora Díaz-Rato, current Permanent Representative of Spain to the UN and International Organizations in Geneva; and María Jesús Alonso Jiménez, current Ambassador to Argentina (the first woman to hold this position).
Among the rest of those promoted is the current ambassador to the United States, Santiago Cabanas, former director of the Cabinet of Minister Abel Matutes, director general of Foreign Policy between 2011 and 2013 and former director general of Consular and Migratory Affairs and Cultural and Scientific Relations, among other positions, as well as former ambassador of Spain to the Czech Republic and Jordan.
Also on the list is Ramón Gil-Casares, who was secretary of state for Foreign Affairs between 2002 and 2004, after serving in the International Department of the Presidency of the Government and before being appointed ambassador to South Africa, Sudan, the United States and Egypt (until 2022) and director of the Diplomatic School between 2017 and 2018.
Among those promoted is another former director of the Diplomatic School, Enrique Viguera, who was also ambassador to Sweden, ambassador on special mission for Energy Affairs and ambassador to Australia and Greece (in this case, until January 2022).
The list of those promoted also includes Ángel Losada Fernández, who began his professional career in NATO, coinciding with Spain’s entry into the organization, and who has held several important international posts, such as ambassador-at-large in the Command Structure of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF) and EU special representative for the Sahel. He was also Spain’s ambassador to Nigeria, Kuwait and, from 2021, to Iran.
Another veteran diplomat promoted to the rank of ambassador is Antonio Pérez-Hernández y Torra, former ambassador to Iran, Nicaragua and Venezuela and director of Casa de América from 2018 until his resignation at the end of 2020, after which he was posted as ambassador to the Dominican Republic, a position he currently holds.
The list also includes the current consul general of Spain in Hong Kong and former ambassador permanent representative of Spain to the NATO Council, Miguel Aguirre de Cárcer; the former secretary general of the Spain-Australia and Spain-Japan Council Foundations Jesús Rodríguez-Andía; the current consul general in Munich, Ángel Boixareu; the current Consul General in Strasbourg, Juan Manuel González de Linares; the current Ambassador to Egypt, Álvaro Iranzo; the Ambassador to Algeria, Fernando Morán Calvo-Sotelo; the Ambassador to Ethiopia, Manuel Salazar; and José Andrés Gallegos del Valle, former Minister Counselor at the Spanish Embassy in Paris.
