Colombian President-elect Juan Manuel Santos named Colombia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Maria Angela Holguin, as his foreign minister on Thursday.
Holguin, who also held the position of Colombia’s ambassador to Venezuela, will join Juan Carlos Echeverry and German Cardona in the Santos cabinet, after the recently-elected Santos named them respectively as his finance and transport ministers earlier this week.
In a press release on Thursday, Santos, who called Holguin a “very efficient official,” also named Juan Mesa as his senior advisor for communications, to be “in charge of everything related to strategic communications, from managing relationships with the press to the country’s image abroad.”
Also on Thursday, Santos announced that he will first visit British Prime Minister David Cameron as part of the international trip he will take prior to assuming the presidency on August 7.
After the U.K., “I will go to Germany, where I will meet with Chancellor Merkel, and we still don’t know, because everything is currently being organized, but I will from there go to Spain to meet with President Zapatero and His Majesty the King,” Santos explained.
Accompanied by his new foreign minister, Santos also plans to visit France, Germany, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Chile and Peru.
Santos on Sunday was elected as Colombia’s 2010-2014 president 69% of the vote, defeating his opponent, the Green Party’s Antanas Mockus, who only received 28%.
