He Official State Gazette (BOE) publishes this Saturday the appointments of Mercedes Araújo Díaz de Terán as general secretary of the King’s House, a position that will be held, for the first time, by a woman, and Carmen Castiella Ruiz de Velasco as diplomatic advisor.
Araújo, who until now was deputy general secretary for Parliamentary Affairs of Congress, relieves Lieutenant General of the Civil Guard Domingo Martínez Palomo; and Castiella, current ambassador in Paraguay, to the diplomat Alfonso Sanz Portoles.
Mercedes Araújo joined the Corps of Lawyers of the Cortes Generales in 1995, occupying successive assistance and advisory positions to the governing bodies of Congress in the VI and XV legislatures. Between 2014 and 2024 she was deputy general secretary for Administrative Affairs of the Lower House and now takes over from Martínez Palomo.
Carmen Castiella Ruiz de Velasco has been a career diplomat since 1999 and has been assigned to different embassies and advisory positions in the Presidency of the Government and in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Until his appointment as ambassador in Paraguay, She was director of Cooperation with Latin America and the Caribbean of the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation.
These two women join togetherafter two that were named in recent months within the structure of the Royal House: the head of the Queen’s Secretariat, María Ocaña; and the auditor of the Royal HouseAna Varela.