MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

AMLO picks former ECLAC boss for FM post

Bárcena was the first woman to head the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) Tuesday announced he had picked former Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Executive Secretary Alicia Bárcena as the country's next foreign minister following the resignation of Marcelo Ebrard to devote himself to his electoral run.

Bárcena held the Santiago-based ECLAC job between 2008 and 2022 and was the first woman to head the agency. She is currently Mexico's ambassador to Chile.

“Alicia Bárcena, also a diplomat, has already been appointed to this position; she will be the next Secretary of Foreign Affairs,” AMLO said in a press conference.

While she takes the post, which will happen in the next 10 days, the current undersecretary of the Mexican Foreign Ministry, Carmen Moreno Toscano, will be in charge of the office, it was explained.

Bárcena is a biologist from UNAM and holds a Master's degree in Administration from Harvard University in the United States. She holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Oslo, Norway.

The Chancellor-designate began her career as an official in 1982 in Mexico's Ministry of Urban Development and Ecology, which became the current Ministry of the Environment, Natural Resources, and Fisheries.

She has also held various positions at the international level, for example as coordinator of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

In 2006, she was appointed Chief of Staff to then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and in 2007, his successor, Ban Ki-moon, appointed her as UN Under-Secretary-General for Administration. However, She is most remembered for her tenure at the ECLAC. On June 14, 2022, she was appointed as Mexico's ambassador to Chile.