New changes in the organization of the House of HM the King. Felipe VI continues with the relays within the Institution to continue modernizing the Crown and direct it towards the new times that his reign marks, to be in tune with the changes that prevail in society.
According to reports from the Zarzuela Palace, early next month of December The replacement of the general secretary of the King’s House will take place, Domingo Martínez Palomoand the diplomatic advisor of the Household of His Majesty the King, Alfonso Sanz Portolés. Two women will join these management positions. Mercedes Araújo Díaz de Teránthe current deputy general secretary for Parliamentary Affairs of the Congress of Deputies, will be the new general secretary of the House; while Carmen Castiella Ruiz de Velascocurrent ambassador of Spain in Paraguay, will become diplomatic advisor to the King.
Araújo and Castiella follow in the footsteps of Maria Ocanawho last April became the first woman to hold a managerial position within the King’s Household, when she took charge of the Queen’s Secretariat. Before them, the only woman in a position of responsibility in the House was Ana Varela Varelawho is the intervener.
These changes occur almost ten months after the arrival of Camilo Villarino to the leadership of the King’s House, which is the body that depends directly on Felipe VI and through which the activities that derive from his institutional functions at the head of the head of State are managed.
According to these appointments, Araújo is placed in the organization chart of the King’s House just behind Villarino. With her arrival, the King will have for the first time in his management team an official who does not belong to the Armed Forces, neither to the diplomatic career nor to the Armed Forces. As a lawyer for the Cortes Generales, Araújo knows the functioning of the representation and defense of the Congress of Deputiesthe Senate, the Central Electoral Board and the bodies and institutions that are linked to or depend on the Constitutional Court.
Retirement age
As Royal Decree 297/2022 of April 26 sanctioned by the King says, it is up to the Head of the King’s Household to assign functions to the personnel integrated into the Secretariat, the Military Room and the Royal Guard. Therefore, these new changes, which ABC already published last June that were taking place, have corresponded to Villarino. Both Domingo Martínez Palomo and Alfonso Sanz Portolés have decades of work in the service of the Crown, so this change occurs due to a matter of age, since They both reached retirement age this year..
The new general secretary of the House, Mercedes Araújo Díaz de Teránhe joined the Corps of Lawyers of the Cortes Generales in 1995, where he held successive positions of assistance and advice to the governing bodies of Congress from the VI to the XV legislatures. Between 2014 and 2024, she held the responsibilities of Deputy Secretary General for Administrative Affairs of Congress and, also, for Parliamentary Affairs.
Carmen Castiella Ruiz de VelascoFor her part, she has been a career diplomat since 1999. She has been posted in different embassies and advisory positions in the Presidency of the Government and in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Until her new appointment as diplomatic advisor, she has been ambassador in Paraguay, where she met Queen Letizia during her trip with Spanish Cooperation in 2021. Before, she was director of Cooperation with Latin America and the Caribbean of the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation.
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