Patricia Espinosa

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Patricia Espinosa

Secretary of Foreign Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office December 1, 2006
President	Felipe Calderón
Preceded by	Luis Ernesto Derbez

Born	21 May 1958 (1958-05-21) (age 50) Mexico City
Political party	Independent
Alma mater	El Colegio de México
Profession	Diplomat

Espinosa (right) with Condoleezza Rice and Peter Mackay

Patricia Espinosa Cantellano (b. October 21, 1958) is a Mexican diplomat. She is a former ambassador to Austria, Germany, Slovenia and Slovakia and currently serves as Secretary of Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of President Felipe Calderón.

She graduated with a bachelor's degree in International Relations from El Colegio de México and took postgraduate studies in International Law at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Switzerland. She is married and has two children. ^[1]

[edit] Diplomatic career

Espinosa joined the Foreign Service on September 16, 1981, serving at the Mexican delegation to the United Nations in Geneva. From 1992 to 1997 she worked at the Mexican delegation to the United Nations at New York City and served as general director of the Ibero-American Summit and the Summit of the Americas. ^[1]

She was promoted to Ambassador within the Foreign Service in 2000 and served at the Mexican Embassy in Germany from January 2001 to June 2002, leaving the post to serve as Ambassador to Austria, concurrently with a number of international organizations based in Vienna, from June 2002 to November 2006. ^[1]

On November 28, 2006, President-elect Felipe Calderón announced she will serve as his Secretary of Foreign Affairs starting on December 1, 2006. Her priorities included the diversification of the United States-Mexico agenda (heavily concentrated on immigration and security issues) and to rebuild the diplomatic relations with Cuba and Venezuela, which were heavily stressed during the previous administration.^[2]