President Rafael Correa Succeeded by Maria Belen Moncayo Preceded by Miguel Carvajal President Rafael Correa | President Rafael Correa Name Maria Espinosa Preceded by Doris Soliz Role Politician | |
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Education Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador, Rutgers University, Latin American Social Sciences Institute | ||
María Fernanda Espinosa addresses media for the first time as General Assembly President
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 September 2014. She also held several other Ministerial posts before. She serves as the Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the United Nations in Geneva since October 2014, and held the same position from 2008 to 2009. Besides her political career she is also a poet and essayist.
Contents
- Mara Fernanda Espinosa addresses media for the first time as General Assembly President
- Personal life
- Education
- Political career
- References
Personal life
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. Espinosa got married during the end of the 1980s, but shortly after divorced and later married another man.
Education
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.
Political career
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.
In October 2014 Espinosa was named Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the United Nations in Geneva. She succeeded Luis Gallegos. In her capacity as Permanent Representative she defended the case of Julian Assange in a discussion on arbitrary detention in September 2016.
Espinosa is a member of the World Future Council.