US Embassy in Madrid
It’s been about nine months since US President Donald Trump announced that Cuban-American businessman Benjamin León Jr. would be the new US ambassador in Spain-but the designated diplomat continues without taking office.
Madrid has been without US ambassador for over a year, since the previous ambassador, Julissa Reynosoleft office in July 2024.
The new head of the US diplomatic mission in Spain, the entrepreneur of Cuban origin Benjamin León Jr.has already been designated by Donald Trumpbut its appointment has not yet been approved by the Senate, the High House of the United States Congress.
“Benjamin is a highly successful businessman, passionate about riding and philanthropist. He arrived in the United States from the Communist Cuba at the age of 16, with only five dollars in his pocket, and turned his company, Leon Medical Centers, into an extraordinary business,” Trump at the time on the Truth Social network.
According to the Spanish newspaper, the diplomat has not yet assumed the head of the embassy in Madrid because Wait for Senate confirmation American, a process whose duration is uncertain.
For the appointment to become effective, the entrepreneur will have to comply with two more steps: first, hearing at the Senate Foreign Affairs Commission, which has to validate its appointment. This is followed by vote on the Senate Plenary, which will have to ratify the choice.
These votes are pending and, so far, have no date set.
The delay is partly explained because Trump appointed hundreds of guardians At the same time, all dependent on Senate approval, which means that neither US authorities nor Spanish know for sure when León could arrive in Madrid to take over the embassy.
The American representation in Madrid is being directed by the businessman, in the meantime Rian Harker Harriscareer diplomat in the external service of the United States.
Official sources underline that The delay is not related with the state of diplomatic relations between Washington and Madrid.
However, Spain does not figure among Trump’s priorities: The country was neither part of the first nor of the second round of international contacts that the US president kept when he returned to the White House.
The delay is not uncommon Upon arrival of a new US ambassador to Spain. Julissa Reynoso, for example, was only confirmed by the Senate in December 2021, eleven months after Joe Biden won the elections.
“During Donald Trump’s second term we had the confirmation process of appointments faster in decades. We hope Benjamin León contributes to advancing the foreign policy agenda America First As a US ambassador to Spain and Andorra, after confirmation by the Senate, ”he told a high official in the US State Department.
Born in East, Cuba, in 1944, Benjamin León emigrated with his family to the United States in 1961 after the Cuban revolution. He arrived in Miami at 16, with his parents and brother followed his steps in the same year.
“Benjamin Leon Jr is the Founder of Leon Medical Centers and a health visionary that, for more than five decades, made the difference In the lives of the elderly and their families in Miami-Dade County, ”says the US State Department in Leon Jr’s aptitude to head the diplomatic mission.
So it is only missing that the Senate confirms the appointment of the Cuban-American businessman and diplomat-who will one day be US ambassador in Madrid.
