First Female Cuban Ambassador to Ghana Presents Letter of Credence

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Mrs. Anette Chao Garcia, the first female Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba, has presented her Letter of Credence to the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-at a short ceremony at the Jubilee House, Accra on Tuesday, November 23. She replaces Pedro Luis Despaigne Gonzalez.

Ghana and Cuba has for the past 62 years been in of diplomatic ties, a relationship which has witnessed the training of many Ghanaian professionals in Cuba and a similar number of Cuban doctors serving in many deprived communities in Ghana since 1983.

On December 23, 1959, Ghana was the first nation in sub-Saharan Africa to establish diplomatic relations with the Caribbean country. Since then, Cuban support to Ghana has been forthcoming in different ways, including security, health and education.

Presenting her letters, the gorgeous Ambassador pledged to help enhance the already existing cooperation and friendship between the two countries.

On same day, President Akufo-Addo received letters of credence from six other envoys at the Jubilee House, at separate ceremonies.

They are the Ambassadors of Israel, Ms. Shlomit Sufa; Egypt’s Aldesouky Mahmoud Youssef; Mauricio Mauro Epkua Obama Bindang of Equatorial Guinea; Japan’s Mochizuki Hisanobu; the Ambassador of Greece to Nigeria with parallel accreditation to Ghana, loannis Plotas; and the Bulgarian Ambassador Yanko Vasilev.

Receiving the Letter of Credence from Mrs. Garcia, President Akufo-Addo congratulated her on her appointment and warmly welcomed her to Ghana. He wished her a pleasant stay and a successful duty tour in the West African country.

Born on November 1, 1980 in Havana, Cuba, Mrs. Garcia has Master’s Degree in Foreign Affairs with Specialty in Politics from the Raúl Roa García Institute of Foreign Affairs in Havana, Cuba in 2007.

She also has a Bachelor’s Degree in Law from the University of Havana, Havana and speaks Spanish, English and German.

Other studies undertaken by the first Female Cuban Ambassador are postgraduate course for Diplomatic Attachés in 2006 and in 2012, she also undertook a course for Officials of Protocol Departments from developing countries at the  Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, China; and Public Administration, State and Government College, Havana, Cuba in 2020.

In 2007, she was the Country Specialist, Diplomatic Attaché, Sub-Saharan Africa Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 2007 to 2009, she was a Diplomatic Attaché, Press, Culture, Sports and Administration at the Embassy of the Republic of Cuba to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

From 2009 to 2010, she was again a Diplomatic Attaché, Protocol Attaché, Protocol Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and from 2010 to 2012; she was the third Secretary, Head of the Planning and Attachés Office, Protocol Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Mrs. Garcia was the Second Secretary, Head of the Planning and Attachés Office, Protocol Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2013 and from 2013-2017, she became the Second Secretary, Head of the Diplomatic Office of the Republic of Cuba in Bonn, Federal Republic of Germany.

From 2017 to 2020, she was the  Counsellor, First-Level Protocol Attaché, Protocol Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Married with a son, the the 41-year-old Cuban Ambassador to Ghana has served in various official missions including her participation in the support detail for the recovery of Haiti after the earthquake of 2010.

Likewise, in her capacity as protocol attaché, she has supported Cuban leaders in their official and working visits abroad and during international events, including but not limited to, the 52nd Meeting of OLACEFS Board of Directors in Panama 2012 and the 22nd Ibero-American Summit in Spain 2012; the 1st CELAC-EU Summit in Chile 2013.

Other international events are the Inauguration of Rafael Correa as President of Ecuador in 2013; the Official Visit of a Vice-President of the Councils of State and Ministers to Ghana in 2018; the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York 2018; and the 108th Meeting of the International Labor Conference (ILO) in Geneva in 2019.