María Fernanda Espinosa | |
---|---|
Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
Assumed office 24 May 2017 |
|
President | Lenín Moreno |
Preceded by | Guillaume Long |
In office 15 January 2007 – 7 December 2007 |
|
President | Rafael Correa |
Preceded by | Francisco Carrión |
Succeeded by | María Isabel Salvador |
Minister of National Defense | |
In office 28 November 2012 – 23 September 2014 |
|
President | Rafael Correa |
Preceded by | Miguel Carvajal |
Succeeded by | Fernando Cordero Cueva |
Coordinating Minister of Heritage | |
In office 19 October 2009 – 28 November 2012 |
|
President | Rafael Correa |
Preceded by | Doris Soliz |
Succeeded by | María Belén Moncayo |
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Commerce and Integration | |
In office 15 January 2007 – 7 December 2007 |
|
President | Rafael Correa |
Preceded by | Francisco Carrión Mena |
Succeeded by | María Isabel Salvador |
Personal details | |
Born |
Salamanca, Spain |
September 7, 1964
Alma mater |
Facultad Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador |
María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés (born September 7, 1964) is an Ecuadorian politician and diplomat. She was Minister of National Defense of Ecuador from 28 November 2012 to 23 September 2014. Currently, she is serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs under President Lenín Moreno. She also held several other Ministerial posts before. She served as the Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the United Nations in Geneva from October 2014 to May 2017, and held the same position from 2008 to 2009. Besides her political career she is also a poet and essayist.
Espinosa was born 7 September 1964 in Salamanca, Spain during a stay of her parents in the city. She is fluent in French and English and has working knowledge of Portuguese. She has interests in poetry and ecology. She studied at Lycée La Condamine and graduated in the early 1980s.
Espinosa has a master's degree in Social Science and Amazonic Studies. She also has a postgraduate degree in Anthropology and Political Science from the Facultad Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales in Quito and a licentiate in Applied Linguistics from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. In addition to that, she won the "First National Poetry Prize of Ecuador" in 1990.
Under President Rafael Correa, Espinosa was Minister for Foreign Affairs, Commerce and Integration from January 2007 to December 2007. She was then Special Adviser to the President of the Constituent Assembly, Alberto Acosta from December 2007 to February 2008 before being appointed as Ecuador's Permanent Representative to the United Nations. She presented her credentials as Permanent Representative on March 7, 2008. From October 2009 till November 2012 she was Coordinating Minister of Heritage.
In November 2012 she got the post of Minister of National Defense as incumbent Minister Miguel Carvajal stepped down to run for the National Assembly elections of 2013. She is the third female to lead the Ministry of National Defense after Guadalupe Larriva and Lorena Escudero. In March 2013 some controversy arose after television channel Ecuavisa reported there was unrest in the military concerning the promotion of certain colonels to generals. President Correa ordered Espinosa to take legal action against Ecuavisa, saying that the information Ecuavisa possessed was false. On 18 March 2013 Ecuavisa apologized and confirmed that the basic verification procedures were not followed. She resigned as Minister on 23 September 2014.