Boric names former Allende press secretary as Chile's ambassador to Cuba

Cuban state media reported that Patricia Esquinazi, a Chilean journalist and former press secretary under former socialist President Salvador Allende, will be Chile’s new ambassador to Cuba – an appointment made by Chile’s new leftist President Gabriel Boric.

According to the report from Prensa Latina, Esquinazi also previously served as director of the Department of Press and Communications at the Organization of American States (OAS) between 2005 and 2015 and as chief of staff at the International Court of Justice in The Hague between 2015 and 2015.

Chile’s new ambassador to Cuba will replace Ambassador Mauricio Hurtado Navia, a University of Chile-trained lawyer and graduate of the Diplomatic Academy.

Chile’s Foreign Ministry also announced the appointment of ambassadors to Spain, the United States and the World Trade Organization, as well as career diplomats to Peru and Bolivia, EFE reported.

Javier Velasco, a lawyer from the University of Chile and Master of Laws from the University of California-Berkeley, who has been a visiting scholar at the Global Legal Studies Center at the University of Wisconsin and a research associate for the Biopolitics and Ideology Research Center, has been appointed to Spain.

Juan Gabriel Valdés, a lawyer from the Catholic University of Chile and PhD in Political Science from Princeton University, who was Minister of Foreign Affairs during the government of Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle (1994-2000), and was also Chile's permanent representative to the United Nations and ambassador to Spain, Argentina and the United States, will lead the Chilean diplomatic mission in Washington.

At the end of March, Chilean Foreign Minister Antonia Urrejola stated that President Gabriel Boric will keep his commitment to appoint only 20% ambassadors with a political profile, following the controversy that arose after diplomatic appointments made known that month.

"The president committed last year to continue the practice of hiring 80% career and 20% political diplomats. We will respect the percentage,” the minister said in a meeting with foreign correspondents.

Some appointments promoted by Boric raised questions from conservative opposition leaders, many of whom accused him of "political quotas," a practice that the former student leader criticized during the electoral campaign.

"What he (the president) is doing is using his prerogative, appointing people he trusts, there have always been political ambassadors," said Urrejola, who was president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in 2020.