Spain's Sanchez Calls for a Woman from Latin America as Next UN Chief
Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez told the UN General Assembly the next secretary-general should be a woman from Latin America, as seven candidates vie to succeed Antonio Guterres.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez used his address to the United Nations General Assembly to call for the next head of the world body to be a woman from Latin America, arguing that the organisation's leadership record no longer matches its universal claims.
"Nine men have served as Secretary-General of this organization in its 80 years of existence. Now it's time for a woman to serve, a Latin American woman," Sanchez told delegates. He asked how an institution that speaks for all humanity could never have been led by a woman, and how it could claim to represent every continent when Latin America — the third most populous — has gone three decades without holding the post.
The intervention comes as the race to succeed Antonio Guterres, whose term ends on 31 December 2026, moves into its decisive phase. Seven candidates are in contention, two of them Latin American women, both from Ecuador: María Fernanda Espinosa, a former president of the UN General Assembly and former Ecuadorian foreign minister, and Ivonne A-Baki Garcés, a former Ecuadorian ambassador to the United States, France and Qatar.
Sanchez framed his appeal within a broader reflection on the state of the world, describing eight years in which he had watched self-interested and cruel forces seize power in many places, launch illegal wars and strip aid from those most affected by poverty and disease. Those developments, he said, had changed his understanding of the world but had not destroyed his faith in humanity.
He also pointed to Spain's own record, saying Madrid had doubled its cooperation investment in two years and raised its contribution to the multilateral system by 60 per cent. Referring to the Spanish city of Ceuta, which has faced one of the most significant irregular migration crises in recent years, he said his government would not respond by treating migrants as enemies or by breaking the law, insisting a crisis could be handled without sacrificing decency or human rights.