Spain’s Defence Minister Margarita Robles appoints new JEMAD

SPAIN’S Defence Minister Margarita Robles appoints Admiral Teodoro López Calderón as the new JEMAD (Chief of the Defence Staff)

The Spanish Armed Forces have appointed López Calderón who replaces General Miguel Ángel Villarroya after his resignation from the role was confirmed on Saturday, January 23.

Miguel Ángel Villarroya was at the centre of a controversy which saw more than 100 senior officials and politicians receive the Covid vaccine at the beginning of January, despite the fact that they are not part of the priority groups supposed to be first to receive the jabs.

López Calderón was promoted to Admiral General in March 2017 and has an extensive career in which he has received 23 military and civilian awards. Among others, he has taken part in the NATO “Active Endeavor” operation and also in Operation Delta to waterproof the Basque Country’s maritime border in order to “prevent arms smuggling and the clandestine passage of people engaged in terrorist activities.”

The election of the hitherto Admiral Chief of the Navy General Staff (AJEMA) means continuing with the traditional rotation between the three Armies so that one of its members is the head of the Defense Staff (EMAD), although this time there were doubts.

Villarroya had only held his position for a single year, and there was the possibility that the Ministry of Defence contemplated the possibility of reappointing a general in the Air Force.

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