Mexico City — Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has named Alicia Bárcena Ibarra as his new foreign minister, following the resignation of Marcelo Ebrard from the post on June 12.
The president said that Bárcena will take office in 10 days’ time because she must first vacate her post as Mexico’s ambassador to Chile.
“I am very happy because we are going to be well represented. She is a professional, a diplomat, a woman with convictions, principles, and she is going to help us in this last stretch of the government,” AMLO, as the president is known, said during during his morning press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City on Tuesday.
Who is Alicia Bárcena?
The country’s diplomatic representative in Santiago is a biologist graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico with a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University.
She began her career as undersecretary of ecology in Mexico and served as chief and deputy chief of staff during Kofi Annan’s administration as secretary general of the United Nations.
Between 2008 and 2022, Bárcena was executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and that same year was appointed by AMLO as Mexico’s ambassador to Chile.
Bárcena replaces Ebrard after he left the post to pursue the candidacy of the ruling National Regeneration Movement (Morena) party for the presidency in the 2024 elections.
The temporary head of the ministry will be Carmen Moreno Toscano, who currently serves as undersecretary at the ministry.