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• The biggest challenges for the Foreign Service are to restore career advancement for the diplomats and ensure effective and permanent equality between men and women and the inclusion of groups such as the LGBTIQ+ community

Today in the Foreign Ministry, Foreign Secretary Alicia Bárcena swore in 48 new members of the diplomatic-consular branch of the Mexican Foreign Service.

In her remarks, the Foreign Secretary said, “The highest honor one can have in life is to serve Mexico.” The new diplomats “will be the key protagonists of Mexico’s future international activities […] Diplomacy must be close to the people […] More than 130 million people will demand your loyalty and service.”

She stressed that “diplomacy is essential because it is the only thing that will allow us to achieve peace and reconciliation, and that is what Mexico has given to the world, that tradition of peace, of non-intervention.”

The Secretary pledged to promote and improve the Mexican Foreign Service. She listed three key challenges: restoring career advancement for the diplomats, ensuring effective and permanent equality between men and women, and the inclusion of groups such as the LGBTIQ+ community, in addition to updating the methods for regulating salaries and benefits abroad.

She said she would seek to include promotions, new positions and a salary review in next year’s budget. “I will always listen to the SEM […] they have my goodwill, and I am committed to achieving these very important goals that are urgent,” she said.

She announced that she had already spoken with Finance Secretary Rogelio Ramírez de la O about creating a high-level working group with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Finance.

The new diplomats participated in a public competitive examination that began in 2021. The 20 women and 28 men will be sent to Mexico’s representations abroad now that they have completed their training at the Matías Romero Institute, Mexico’s diplomatic academy.

The event was attended by the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Emeritus Carmen Moreno; Chief Officer for North America Roberto Velasco; the acting Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights, Eduardo Jaramillo; the head of the Administration and Finance Unit, Moisés Poblanno; the Executive Director of the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation, Laura Elena Carrillo; Legal Advisor Alejandro Celorio; the President of the Mexican Foreign Service Personnel Commission, Ambassador Juan Carlos Lara; and the Director General of the Matías Romero Institute, Minister Alejandro Alday.

Also present were Ambassadors Emeritus Bernardo Sepúlveda and Carlos De Icaza, and Eminent Ambassadors Eduardo Ibarrola and Andrés Rozental.