# List of ambassadors of Spain to Cuba

The Spanish Ambassador in Havanna is the Ambassador of the Spanish government to the government of Cuba.

## History

After the Spanish–American War of 1898-1903, Cuba, the last Spanish colonial territory in America, achieved its independence. Spain decided to maintain its diplomatic relations uninterruptedly with the island since 1902 (with the appointment of a Charge d'Affaires in Havana), which were consolidated in the year 1903. Therefore, the first bilateral relations between Spain and Cuba were maintained by mutual interest, which will be determined by the long and intense stage of colonization, as by Cuba's peculiar dependence on the United States. These relations were immersed in a delicate political-economic context in Cuba, marked by the North American interventions and changes of the Spanish diplomatic representative. Hence, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1909, Pablo Soler Guardiola, considered that the plaza in Havana was the most difficult and important of all the Spanish diplomatic representation of the time abroad. One of the results is that the old Consulate was elevated to the rank of Legation in the year 1904, and this in turn to the Embassy in 1927, thus intensifying trade relations, opening of consulates, and the signing of treaties and agreements in mainly commercial, financial, tourism and communication areas. In the course of the years 1958 to 1960, in the words of Juan Pablo de Lojendio, Ambassador of Spain in Cuba, the political situation was complicated by the defeat of General Batista and the recognition of the Revolutionary Government of Cuba by Spain. During this stage the Francoist administration in Spain maintained its concern about the outcome of the political situation in Cuba, notorious ideological differences between the two governments but without ruling out the principle of historical-cultural relationship between the two countries.
Royal decree elevating to Embassy the Legation of Spain in Cuba, published in the Madrid Gazette no. 166, of June 15, 1926.
| Diplomatic accreditation | Ambassador | Observations | Head of government in Spain | Head of government in Cuba | Term end |
| 1904 | Ramón Gaytán de Ayala y Brunet | envoy | Alfonso XIII of Spain | Tomás Estrada Palma | 1909 |
| 1909 | Pablo Soler y Guardiola | | Alfonso XIII of Spain | José Miguel Gómez | 1910 |
| 1910 | Julián María Arroyo y Moret de | | Alfonso XIII of Spain | José Miguel Gómez | |
| 1910 | Cristóbal Fernández-Vallín y Alfonso | | Alfonso XIII of Spain | José Miguel Gómez | 1912 |
| 1912 | Julián María de Arroyo y Moret | | Alfonso XIII of Spain | José Miguel Gómez | 1913 |
| 1913 | Alfredo Mariátegui y Carratalá | | Alfonso XIII of Spain | Mario García Menocal | 1926 |
| August 20, 1926 | Francisco Gutiérrez de Agüera y Bayo [es] | Ambassador | Alfonso XIII of Spain | Gerardo Machado | December 21, 1928 |
| December 21, 1928 | Santiago Méndez de Vigo y Méndez de Vigo [es] | | Alfonso XIII of Spain | Gerardo Machado | June 2, 1931 |
| July 31, 1931 | Francisco Serrat y Bonastre [es] | | Niceto Alcalá Zamora | Gerardo Machado | 1933 |
| 1933 | Luciano López Ferrer | | Niceto Alcalá Zamora | Ramón Grau San Martín | 1936 |
| 1936 | Domingo Barnés y Salinas | | Manuel Azaña | Miguel Mariano Gómez | 1937 |
| 1938 | Carlos Montilla y Escudero | Chargé d'affaires | Francisco Franco | Federico Laredo Bru | |
| 1938 | Félix Gordón Ordás [es] | ambassador commissed by the Second Spanish Republic with residence in Mexico City | Francisco Franco | Federico Laredo Bru | |
| 1939 | Miguel Espeliús y Pedroso | Chargé d'affaires Conde de Morales | Francisco Franco | Federico Laredo Bru | 1942 |
| 1942 | Pelayo García-Olay y Álvarez | Chargé d'affaires | Francisco Franco | Fulgencio Batista | 1945 |
| 1945 | Miguel Espeliús y Pedroso | Chargé d'affaires Conde de Morales | Francisco Franco | Ramón Grau San Martín | 1946 |
| 1946 | Álvaro Seminario y Martínez | Chargé d'affaires | Francisco Franco | Ramón Grau San Martín | 1949 |
| 1948 | Manuel Galán y Pacheco de Padilla | Chargé d'affaires | Francisco Franco | Carlos Prío Socarrás | 1949 |
| 1949 | Germán Baráibar y Usandizaga | Chargé d'affaires | Francisco Franco | Carlos Prío Socarrás | 1952 |
| 1952 | Juan Pablo de Lojendio e Irure [es] | Chargé d'affaires | Francisco Franco | Fulgencio Batista | January 21, 1960 |
| January 21, 1960 | Eduardo Groizard y Paternina [es] | Chargé d'affaires conde de Superunda (* January 30, 1890 † February 26, 1970 ) | Francisco Franco | Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado | 1961 |
| 1961 | Jorge Taberna Latasa | Chargé d'affaires | Francisco Franco | Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado | 1964 |
| 1964 | Román Oyarzun Iñarra | Chargé d'affaires | Francisco Franco | Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado | 1963 |
| 1969 | Juan Torroba y Gómez-Acebo | Chargé d'affaires | Francisco Franco | Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado | 1972 |
| 1972 | Francisco Javier Oyarzun Iñarra | Chargé d'affaires | Francisco Franco | Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado | 1975 |
| 1975 | Enrique Suárez de Puga y Villegas | | Carlos Arias Navarro | Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado | 1979 |
| May 19, 1979 | Manuel Ortiz Sánchez [es] | | Adolfo Suárez | Fidel Castro Ruz | 1981 |
| August 3, 1981 | Enrique Larroque de la Cruz [es] | | Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo | Fidel Castro Ruz | 1985 |
| April 30, 1985 | Antonio Serrano de Haro Medialdea [es] | | Felipe González | Fidel Castro Ruz | 1990 |
| August 31, 1990 | Gumersindo Rico Rodríguez [es] | | Felipe González | Fidel Castro Ruz | 1993 |
| May 5, 1993 | José Antonio San Gil Augustín [es] | | Felipe González | Fidel Castro Ruz | 1994 |
| April 8, 1995 | Eudaldo Mirapeix [es] | | Felipe González | Fidel Castro Ruz | 1996 |
| October 19, 1996 | José Coderch [es] | the government of Cuba denied the placet to be ambassador | José María Aznar | Fidel Castro Ruz | |
| April 2, 1998 | Eduardo Junco Bonet [es] | | José María Aznar | Fidel Castro Ruz | |
| April 6, 2001 | Jesús Manuel Gracia Aldaz [es] | | José María Aznar | Fidel Castro Ruz | |
| July 9, 2004 | Carlos Alonso Zaldívar [es] | | José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero | Fidel Castro Ruz | |
| October 17, 2008 | Manuel Cacho Quesada [es] | | José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero | Raúl Castro | |
| May 11, 2012 | Juan Francisco Montalbán Carrasco | | Mariano Rajoy | Raúl Castro | |
| May 17, 2017 | Juan José Buitrago de Benito | | Mariano Rajoy | Raúl Castro | |
| October 1, 2018 | Juan Fernández Trigo | Born in 1958, in Terrassa (Barcelona), he graduated in Law and entered the Diplomatic Career in 1986. He has been stationed in the diplomatic representations of Spain in Morocco, Vietnam, Cuba, European Communities, in Brussels, and before the UN, in New York. He has also been Deputy Director General of International Multilateral Economic Relations and of Air, Maritime and Terrestrial Cooperation and Ambassador of Spain in Haiti and in Paraguay. | Pedro Sánchez | Miguel Díaz-Canel | |
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