The Diplomat
The Official State Gazette (BOE) published yesterday the dismissal of María Jesús Alonso Jiménez as ambassador of Spain to Argentina, after the Government decided to permanently withdraw the Spanish diplomatic representative in Buenos Aires, as a result of the crisis with the president Argentine, Javier Milei.
María Jesús Alonso is a veteran diplomat, who has been in charge of the Embassy in Argentina since February 2022, after having been ambassador in Cameroon, Ghana and the Netherlands.
The Executive called the ambassador for consultations on the 19th, in protest of Milei’s words at a Vox event in Madrid, in which she described Begoña Gómez, wife of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, as “corrupt.” The next day she summoned the Argentine ambassador, Roberto Bosch, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to ask for explanations and demand a rectification.
Given Milei’s refusal to apologize and his insistence on attacks on Sánchez, the Government decided to withdraw the Spanish ambassador. The Minister of Foreign Affairs said that the ambassador would remain permanently in Madrid and now, after the publication of her dismissal, if Spain wants to send a new ambassador she will have to request approval from the Argentine authorities.
The Milei Government has already announced that it has no intention, in turn, of withdrawing its ambassador in Madrid, who by the way presented his Letters of Credence to the King only three days before the Argentine president’s accusations were made.
From now on, at the head of the Spanish Embassy in Buenos Aires, the diplomat Luis Tejada Chacón remains as chargé d’affaires, who has held the position of minister counselor since September 2022 and who between 2016 and 2018 was director of the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development (AECID), appointed by the Government of Mariano Rajoy.
