Being an ambassador in Caracas is placing yourself in the eye of the political and media hurricane. The current head of mission in the Venezuelan capital learned it, Ramon Santos, who starred last September in one of the most controversial episodes of recent Spanish diplomacy. He appeared in photos next to the recognized winner of the elections in Venezuela, Edmundo González, while two hardliners from the Chavista regime, Delcy and Jorge Rodríguez, made him sign a letter renouncing his political rights in exchange for letting him leave the country to take refuge. in Spain.
Now, José Manuel Albares, has decided to replace him. That crisis meant a real political storm for the Foreign Minister. The opposition called for his resignation.
The new ambassador will be Alvaro Enrique Albacete Pereaappointed yesterday by the Council of Ministers. It also faces headwinds before it begins. Several of his colleagues within the Diplomatic Career express their surprise that someone who has never directed an embassy abroad is suddenly in charge of one of such level and relevance as the one in Caracas. “It is a very important embassywith a great salary and a lot of staff at your disposal. It is a transatlantic that people want to go on, and a bull that diplomats like to deal with,” says one of the active members of the Carrera consulted and who prefers to remain anonymous because Foreign Affairs does not allow them to speak to the press.
The change of ambassador in Caracas comes in the middle of the most delicate moment for Venezuela. On January 10, Nicolás Maduro plans to be sworn in as president again, despite the fact that many Western countries believe that he manipulated the electoral result in his favor. Edmundo González, exiled in Spain, has also said he intends to attend the inauguration, because he considers himself a winner. The Government of Pedro Sánchez has not recognized Edmundo González as legitimate president, but it has joined a statement that recognizes his victory “according to available records.”
“PSOE” diplomat
“Álvaro Albacete is from the PSOE before he is a diplomat. He has never participated in the hype [sistema de asignación de puestos] nor has he been stationed in an embassy abroad, and now they appoint him ambassador to Venezuela,” notes a diplomat. “He passed the exams already working in the cabinet of Miguel Ángel Moratinos when he was minister. And immediately, while the rest of his classmates started, like everyone else, in a level 26 position, he was named dGeneral Director of the House of Sefarad-Israel”.
Although Albacete had never been an ambassador until now, he was close to achieving it last year. He had been granted the position of ambassador in Libya, according to what three of the sources consulted reveal to this newspaper. But the change of government stopped the appointments. And finally, the Minister of Culture Ernest Urtasunalso a diplomat and classmate from Albacete, appointed him head of his cabinet.
Another of those consulted also highlights the brilliance of his career: “He entered the race very old, at 43 years old.in 2010. But the following year he was appointed ambassador in Special Mission for Relations with the Community and Jewish Organizations, and general director of Casa Sefarad.
Change of ambassador in the middle of the crisis
This Tuesday in Brussels, Minister José Manuel Albares justified the appointment due to the proximity to the retirement of the current ambassador, Ramon Santos. However, when the head of diplomacy decided to relieve him and asked the Maduro Government for approval, Santos still had about eight months left before the usual retirement age for diplomats. He turns 70 in June 2025. Additionally, ambassadors sometimes stay longer at their posts, especially if conditions require it. This was the case of the ambassador in Rabat, Ricardo Díez-Hochleitner, in the midst of a diplomatic crisis over Pedro Sánchez’s move on Western Sahara.
“It makes sense to accelerate change. If Albares now asks for the favor [la aquiescencia del Estado receptor]you can ask Nicolás Maduro. If when Ramón Santos retires there are discrepancies over who the new president is, he could be left without an ambassador. Who is asked for approval in that case?” says one of the diplomats cited. “Then we will have to see to whom he presents the credentials”, the official act in which the receiving State welcomes the new head of mission.
Beginnings with Moratinos
But with the change, the experience accumulated by an ambassador like Santos, already connected to the Maduro Government, is also lost, and in one of the moments that are expected to be the most turbulent, that of the inauguration on January 10.
In return, the new ambassador is more ideologically related. He began his career as a parliamentary advisor to the cabinet of Miguel Ángel Moratinos, Foreign Minister of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the president who continues to be an interlocutor with the Venezuelan regime. That has sparked speculation about whether the move is intended to put someone on the ropes who can deal with the Maduro government.
However, sources who know him well at that stage remember that Moratinos “inherited” Albacete of the cabinet of the PP Foreign Minister Ana Palacio. That source adds that he is “an excellent professional, very balanced and with a good track record.”
The Ministry did not want to respond to the specific questions from this newspaper. “This is a completely normal change. The current ambassador is close to 70 years old, he had a few months left, it had to be done,” the minister said yesterday when asked by the press. “The ambassador we have appointed tHe has enormous experience, and in very different scenarios. Bilaterally and multilaterally, both abroad and with senior officials in Spain. “He offered us all the guarantees so that the interests of Spain, which is what is important, are protected in Caracas.”
Albacete has developed part of his career as a diplomat working in international organizations such as the European Union, in Bosnia/Herzegovina, and the Inter-American Development Bank, in Argentina, Bolivia and Panama, according to his official resume. He is the author of numerous studies and articles on international relations in specialized newspapers and magazines, and a visiting professor at the public universities of Murcia, Jaén, Alicante and the Balearic Islands, “in subjects such as development cooperation, culture of peace, democracy, diplomacy and peacebuilding”.
And, precisely, peace is what Venezuela has been eluding for many years. The latest revolts against what the opposition considered a electoral “tongo” They resulted in at least two dozen murders. The turbulence will arrive again in a few weeks, with the presidential inauguration on January 10. They will do so with a new ambassador already accepted by Venezuela.
