- The appointment will go to the Senate for confirmation.
After meeting with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Secretary of Foreign Affairs Alicia Bárcena Ibarra today appointed Ambassador María Teresa Mercado Pérez as Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs. Her appointment will now be sent to the Senate for ratification.
Ambassador Mercado has been a member of the Mexican Foreign Service since 1982, and she was promoted to the rank of ambassador in 2020. Until today, she served as Director General of the Matías Romero Institute, Mexico's diplomatic academy.
Abroad, she has been Mexico’s ambassador to Bolivia, and attached to the Mexican embassies in Denmark, Argentina, Belgium-European Union, France and Canada. In the Foreign Ministry, she has held positions in the Directorates-General for Diplomatic Affairs, Treaties, Europe, Economic Promotion with Latin America and the Caribbean, and Protocol.
She has been decorated by Denmark and the Netherlands and, most recently, by Bolivia, which bestowed on her the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor of Mariscal Andrés Santa Cruz y Calahumana.
Secretary Bárcena thanked Minister Jennifer Feller Enríquez for her work as acting Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs. Minister Feller will continue as Director General for Europe and Mexico's Sherpa for the Group of 20 (G20).
Both officials have extensive diplomatic experience in the Mexican Foreign Service and will continue to contribute to strengthening the institution, in line with the feminist foreign policy promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
