The new Spanish ambassador to Nicaragua assumes her duties, putting an end to the diplomatic conflict with Managua

July 27 () –

The new Spanish ambassador to Nicaragua, Pilar María Terrén, assumed her duties this Wednesday after handing over copies of her credentials and being received by the country’s Foreign Minister, Denis Moncada, putting an end to the diplomatic conflict between Managua and Madrid .

“Today we want to greet in a special way the new ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain, Mrs. Pilar María Terrén Lalana, who arrived in our blessed Nicaragua, always dignified and free, yesterday,” said the vice president, Rosario Murillo, according to Nicaraguan official media communicated.

The conflict dates back to last year, when the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, called for consultations the then ambassador in Managua, María del Mar Fernández-Palacios, in response to a harsh statement from the Foreign Ministry Nicaraguan in which they denounced interference by Spain.

Specifically, the Government of Daniel Ortega sent Spain a letter protesting the “insolent, anachronistic and outdated” statements made by Minister Albares on Nicaragua –although without specifying which ones– and asking that it stop “interfering in the decisions and actions of a sovereign state”.

In the midst of the conflict with Managua, the then head of Spanish diplomacy, Arancha González Laya, came out in defense of Fernández-Palacios, after Ortega accused him of meddling. Moncada, for her part, accused Laya in a harsh letter of showing a “bold ignorance” and a “ferocity inappropriate for diplomacy.”

Subsequently, Managua refused to accept the return of Fernández-Palacios, after which Nicaragua decided to withdraw its ambassador in Madrid, Carlos Midence, anticipating the possibility that the Spanish government might choose to expel the Nicaraguan representative.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries were not at their best at that time, after Spain joined the rest of a large part of the international community, which denounced electoral fraud in the November presidential elections in which the president, Daniel Ortega, was re-elected.

The new ambassador of Spain in Nicaragua is a Carrera official. From 2016 to the present, she served as deputy director general of the Chancellery of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation. In the Ministry, she has also served as a vocal adviser to the Cabinet of the Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, Inspector General for Services, Head of Service and Area of ​​the Subdirectorate General for North Africa.

In the Presidency of the Government, Terrén served as deputy head of the Department of Protocol. Abroad, she has been posted twice in Mexico as deputy consul at the Consulate General and first secretary of the Embassy, ​​and in El Salvador as second head of the Embassy.