Spain has begun the process of replacing its ambassador to India, Juan Antonio March Pujol, after allegations that he accepted financial favours and used embassy funds to promote cultural events. [1] Livemint published the report at 7:14 p.m. IST Saturday. [1] A replacement process is not a finding of guilt. The reports do not establish proven misconduct. [1]
The Spanish Foreign Ministry referred a report on the diplomat to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office in late May, the Spanish digital publication The Objective reported, according to the Economic Times via Livemint. [1] The Objective alleged that March used embassy funds to promote cultural events featuring international singers with no direct connection to Spain, and that he sought business contributions for those events. [1] One allegation involves BLS International, an Indian firm that provides outsourced visa-processing services for Spain. [1] The Objective said March personally reached an agreement with the company for a €5,000 contribution toward a cultural event in Rajasthan. [1] BLS handles visa processing for the Spanish Embassy in India and for other Spanish missions. [1] Visa-processor money sitting beside a diplomatic recall is the Saturday texture. It is not a conviction.
March was appointed ambassador in June 2024, returning to the service after more than twelve years away. [1] Firstpost, cited by Livemint, said Indian authorities took five months to approve him. [1] He succeeded Jose Maria Ridao, who had sought to leave New Delhi in December 2023. [1] He joined the diplomatic service in 1987 after studying law at the University of Barcelona. [1] He was ambassador to Russia from 2007 to 2011, Spain's permanent representative to the United Nations, and ambassador to the World Trade Organization in Geneva from 2004 to 2007. [1] A résumé is not a defense. It is the reason the posting existed.
An earlier controversy still travels with him. He was involved in Spain's proposal to finance the renovation of Room XX at the UN Palace of Nations in Geneva, later the Human Rights Room, with a dome by Miquel Barcelo. [1] The Spanish government initially allocated €16.6 million. The eventual cost exceeded €20 million. [1] The project also received €500,000 from Spain's Development Assistance Fund. [1] In 2017, then Court of Accounts president Ramon Alvarez de Miranda told Congress that a planned 2008 state contribution of €5 million rose to €11.5 million as private money fell short. [1] March attended the 2008 inauguration as vice-president of the ONUART Foundation while serving in Moscow, and later became the foundation's president until February 2024. [1] That file is history. Saturday's file is India.
Indian desks treat a cultural-concert scandal as a Delhi posting story. Spanish guilt remains unproven. [1] X was thin on the name. The paper's gap is process versus verdict. Madrid has started a replacement and sent a file to a prosecutor. That is a personnel action. It is not a court.
Saturday did not publish a formal Foreign Ministry statement in the Livemint piece. [1] It did not publish a BLS comment. It did not, in this file, name the next envoy. Those absences are part of the record. A newspaper that covered only the concerts would tell readers a diplomat had already been caught. A newspaper that covered only the process would tell readers nothing had been alleged. Saturday printed allegations, a prosecutor referral, and a replacement begun. Write those three. Leave the verdict for the day it exists.
-- LUCIA VEGA, São Paulo