Chile appoints new ambassadors in Ecuador and New Zealand

SANTIAGO – This week, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera appointed diplomats Rodrigo Pérez and Hugo Llanos as the country’s ambassadors in Ecuador and New Zealand, respectively.

The appointments were announced by Chilean Foreign Minister, Teodoro Ribera, in a tweet on Friday.

Ambassador Rodrigo Pérez has studied Journalism and is a graduate of the Andrés Bello Diplomatic Academy where he later taught the Ceremonial and Protocol class. Among the functions he has performed in the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs are those of deputy director of the Directorate of European Affairs and of the Ceremonial Department of the General Directorate of Ceremonial and Protocol. Until his appointment, he served as the Chilean ambassador to Malaysia.

In addition, he has been the Chilean Ambassador to Honduras, Consul General in Guayaquil and Los Angeles. He has also performed functions in the Chilean embassies in Ecuador, Paraguay, the Philippines, Argentina and Mexico. During his stay in Ecuador, he was a columnist for the newspaper Hoy.

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For his part, Ambassador Llanos is a lawyer and graduated in Law from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He also graduated from the Andrés Bello Diplomatic Academy and holds a PhD in Public International Law from the Institute of Higher International Studies at the University of Geneva. He has also been a visiting researcher at the Harvard University School of Law.

The diplomat has served in the Permanent Mission of Chile to international organizations based in Geneva, in the Chilean embassies in the Netherlands and in the United Kingdom, and in the Permanent Mission of Chile to the United Nations, in New York.

Also, he has been Alternate Permanent Representative to the International Maritime Organization and Political Coordinator of Chile in the United Nations Security Council.

At the Ministry of Foreign Relations in Santiago, Llanos has been head of the United Nations Department and head of the Security Council Unit. From July 2015 to December 2017, he held the position of director of Multilateral Policy. Prior to his appointment, Llanos served as ambassador to Iran.