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Esperanza Casteleiro Llamazares (born 18 December 1956) is a Spanish intelligence officer who serves as director of the National Intelligence Center since May 2022. She was previously Secretary of State for Defense from 2020 to 2022.

Casteleiro has spent almost all of her career in the Spanish intelligence services, first in the Centro Superior de Información de la Defensa (CESID) and then in the National Intelligence Center (CNI). She also held important positions in the Ministry of Defense between 2018 and 2022, first as director of the cabinet of minister of defense Margarita Robles, and then as secretary of state for defense.

Life

Casteleiro was born in Madrid on 18 December 1956. Her father, Antonio Casteleiro Naveiras, was a soldier from Mugardos, A Coruña, who served in the Spanish Air Force during the Franco era. She studied Philosophy and Educational Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid, and she has taken various training courses in the fields of intelligence and human resources. She is considered an expert on counterterrorism and on the Maghreb region.

Career

In 1983, Casteleiro joined the Centro Superior de Información de la Defensa (CESID), which became the National Intelligence Center (CNI) in 2002. She has held various key positions in these agencies, including leading the counterintelligence division and the human resources management department at CNI. She has been deployed in foreign countries like Cuba and Portugal.

In 2004 the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, with José Bono as minister of defense, appointed her as secretary-general of the CNI, making her CNI director Alberto Saiz [es]'s number two. She held the position for almost four years, and was succeeded in 2008 by Elena Sánchez Blanco [es], another agency veteran.

After leaving the position of secretary-general, Casteleiro held other foreign intelligence positions. In 2014 she was appointed as head of the CNI intelligence unit in the Intelligence Center for Counter-Terrorism and Organized Crime (CITCO), a position she held until June 2018, when she was appointed head of the cabinet of minister of defense Margarita Robles.

In early 2020 she was reported to be a possible candidate to replace Félix Sanz Roldán as head of the CNI, but instead, the government appointed the agency's secretary-general at the time, Paz Esteban López. Then in mid-2020, she was rumored to be a possible replacement for departing secretary of state for defense Ángel Olivares [es]. She was appointed as secretary of state for defence on 1 July 2020.

In a meeting on 10 May 2022, the Council of Ministers appointed her director of the CNI, replacing Paz Esteban López following the Pegasus spyware scandal, CatalanGate.

Awards

• Silver crosses of the Civil Guard Order of Merit [es] and the Cross of Aeronautical Merit.

References

1. ^ "Consejo- Gobierno nombra 'número dos' del CNI a Elena Sánchez, funcionaria con 20 años de experiencia en Inteligencia" (in Spanish). Europa Press. 20 June 2008. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
2. "Un nombramiento con raíces en Ferrolterra: Esperanza Casteleiro, nueva directora del CNI". Quincemil (in Spanish). Retrieved 25 June 2022.
3. "Esperanza Casteleiro, la filla d'un militar franquista que va fugir de Cuba per un escàndol d'espionatge". VilaWeb (in Catalan). Retrieved 25 June 2022.
4. ^ "ESPERANZA CASTELEIRO LLAMAZARES". transparencia.gob.es (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 27 June 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
5. ^ "Un general del Ejército y tres mujeres con carrera en el CNI: los candidatos de Robles a dirigir la Inteligencia". www.20minutos.es – Últimas Noticias (in Spanish). 15 January 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
6. "La ex 'número dos' de Alberto Saiz, Esperanza Casteleiro, no ha abandonado el CNI y seguirá trabajando para el Centro". Confidencial Digital (in Spanish). 11 September 2008. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
7. "Esperanza Casteleiro, the spy "who knows everything about the CNI"". ARA (in Spanish). June 2024. Retrieved 20 October 2024.
8. "Ana Botella, Esperanza Casteleiro y el general Ballesteros, terna favorita para el CNI". El Confidencial (in Spanish). 15 January 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
9. "La secretaria del CNI, Esperanza Casteleiro, sigue manteniendo un inusual nivel de presencia pública". Confidencial Digital (in Spanish). 15 October 2007. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
10. "Real Decreto 1954/2004, de 27 de septiembre, por el que se nombra Secretaria General del Centro Nacional de Inteligencia a doña Esperanza Casteleiro Llamazares". boe.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 24 June 2020.
11. "Consejo- Gobierno nombra 'número dos' del CNI a Elena Sánchez, funcionaria con 20 años de experiencia en Inteligencia – EcoDiario.es". ecodiario.eleconomista.es (in Spanish). 20 June 2008. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
12. "Esperanza Casteleiro, actual directora del Gabinete de Margarita Robles, próxima SEDEF – Noticias Defensa España". Defensa.com (in Spanish). 24 June 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
13. ^ "Margarita Robles elige como jefa de Gabinete en Defensa a una ex número dos del CNI". eldiario.es (in Spanish). 15 June 2018. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
14. "Sánchez confirma a Paz Esteban como la primera mujer al frente del CNI". El Español (in European Spanish). 31 January 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
15. "Esperanza Casteleiro se perfila para ocupar la Secretaría de Estado de Defensa – Noticias Infodefensa España". Infodefensa.com (in Spanish). 22 June 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
16. "Real Decreto 624/2020, de 30 de junio, por el que se nombra Secretaria de Estado de Defensa a doña Esperanza Casteleiro Llamazares". boe.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2 July 2020.
17. Requeijo, Alejandro (10 May 2022). "Robles nombra a Esperanza Casteleiro al frente del CNI tras el cese de Paz Esteban". elconfidencial.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 May 2022.
18. "Real Decreto 359/2022, de 10 de mayo, por el que se nombra Secretaria de Estado Directora del Centro Nacional de Inteligencia a doña Esperanza Casteleiro Llamazares". boe.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 11 May 2022.

Preceded byMaría Dolores Vilanova Alonso	Secretary-general of the National Intelligence Center 2004–2008	Succeeded byElena Sánchez Blanco [es]
Preceded byÁngel Olivares [es]	Secretary of State for Defense 2020–2022	Succeeded byAmparo Valcarce [es]
Preceded byPaz Esteban López	Director of the National Intelligence Center 2022–	Succeeded bycurrent

• Spanish spies
• 1956 births
• Living people
• Secretaries of State of Spain
• Spanish women
• Complutense University of Madrid alumni