Luis Ayllón
The current State Secretary for Foreign and Global Affairs, Ángeles Moreno Bau, will be the new Spanish ambassador to the United States, while the State Secretary for Ibero-America, the Caribbean and Spanish in the World, Juan Fernández Trigo, will head the Spanish embassy in Portugal, reliable sources have told The Diplomat.
The sources consulted indicated that the Spanish government has already requested the respective approvals from the authorities in Washington and Lisbon in order to proceed with the appointments of Moreno Bau and Fernández Trigo.
Once the approval of the United States and Portugal has been received, which could take several weeks, the Council of Ministers will proceed to appoint the new ambassadors, probably in January or February, if the usual deadlines between partner and allied countries are met.
Ángeles Moreno will replace Santiago Cabanas, who has been at the head of the Embassy in Washington since July 2018 and who will reach retirement age next March.
The name of the current State Secretary for Foreign Affairs has been sounding for some time to occupy one of the most important Embassies for Spain, which, for the first time, will be headed by a woman.
Ángeles Moreno, who was also the first female diplomat to hold the post of State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, was assigned as Deputy Consul in London, when in July 2018, following the arrival of Arancha González Laya at the Ministry, she was appointed Undersecretary of the Department.
In 2020, she became State Secretary for International Cooperation, and when González Laya was replaced by Albares in July 20121, she became the ‘number two’ in the Foreign Ministry, a post in which she has had direct responsibility for relations with the United States.
Born in 1968 and a diplomat since 1994, she has also been posted throughout her career in Russia, Panama, Egypt and Mexico, but the US Embassy will be her first.
In Spain, she has been, among other things, Director of the Cabinet of the Secretary of State for Defence; Director of the Cabinet of the Secretary General of the Presidency of the Government; and Director General of International Relations and Foreigners in the Ministry of the Interior, as well as Ambassador-at-Large for Energy Affairs.
Fernández Trigo, to Lisbon
The current State Secretary for Ibero-America, the Caribbean and Spanish in the World, Juan Fernández Trigo, will replace Marta Betanzos in Lisbon, who, like Cabanas in Washington, had been in the post for more than five years.
Fernández Trigo, who took charge of relations with Latin American countries in July 2021, also with the arrival of Albares at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had expressed his desire to move on to occupy an Embassy again.
Born in 1958, Fernández Trigo has a long diplomatic career, which began in 1986, and which led him to be ambassador to Haiti between 2007 and 2011. In that country, he was seriously injured in an arm during the 2010 earthquake, which caused serious damage to the Spanish diplomatic representation.
Subsequently, between 2011 and 2013 he was ambassador to Paraguay; and between 2013 and 2017 he held the post of ambassador-head of delegation of the European Union in Uruguay.
In 2017, the Government of Mariano Rajoy entrusted him with the coordination of the application of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution in Catalonia, following the separatist attempt of that year.
In 2018, with the arrival of Pedro Sánchez to the Government, Juan Fernández Trigo was appointed ambassador to Cuba and, two years later, he was entrusted to head the Embassy in Venezuela, but not as ambassador, but as Chargé d’Affaires with Cabinet letters, because at that time relations between Madrid and Caracas were going through a delicate moment. He remained in that post until his appointment as State Secretary.
Previously, he was posted to Spain’s diplomatic representations in the European Union, Morocco, Vietnam, the United Nations in New York and Cuba. He has also been Deputy Director General for Multilateral International Economic Relations and for Air, Maritime and Land Cooperation.
With these requests for diplomatic approvals, Albares is preparing to take over most of his senior posts, as the departure of Moreno Bau and Fernández Trigo is expected to be joined by that of the State Secretary for the European Union, Pascual Navarro, who will also be appointed ambassador to one of the capitals where changes were already expected. Furthermore, in the State Secretariat for International Cooperation, Pilar Cancela has already been replaced by Eva Granados.
