Office: | Minister of Foreign Relations |
President: | Dina Boluarte |
Primeminister: | Pedro Angulo Arana Alberto Otárola |
Term Start: | 10 December 2022 |
Term End: | 6 November 2023 |
Predecessor: | César Landa |
Birth Name: | Ana Cecilia Gervasi Diaz |
Profession: | Diplomat |
Ana Cecilia Gervasi Diaz is a Peruvian diplomat who was the country's Minister of Foreign Affairs between 10 December 2022 and 6 November 2023.
Gervasi has a law degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and postgraduate degrees in international relations and diplomacy from the Diplomatic Academy of Peru. She has a master's degree in international relations from the London School of Economics, specialized in multilateral diplomacy at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, and completed doctoral studies at the University of Buenos Aires.
A career diplomat, Gervasi has worked as General Director of Economic Affairs, Economic Promotion and Investment Promotion at Peru's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[1] She has also been Peru's Consul General in Toronto and Washington DC, and a counsellor and delegate of Peru to the United Nations in New York and Geneva, and to the World Trade Organization.[1]
Gervasi was Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and was then appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in August 2022, the first woman to hold the post.[2]
She was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs as part of President Dina Boluarte's new cabinet on 10 December 2022, following the arrest and impeachment of Pedro Castillo.[3] [4] None of the 17 ministers appointed are members of a political party with any seats in Congress.[5] [6] On 13 December, Gervasi summoned the ambassadors of Mexico, Bolivia, Argentina and Colombia after their governments had signed a joint communique expressing concerns over Castillo's dismissal and arrest. Gervasi said on Twitter she "reiterated to them that the presidential succession is constitutional and that the decisions of former president Castillo on December 7 materialized a coup d'état".[7]
Gervasi resigned as Minister on 6 November 2023, after she failed to secure a bilateral meeting between Boluarte and U.S. President Joe Biden at a summit in Washington.[8] A formal meeting with Biden at the White House was considered an important step in gaining international legitimacy for the Boluarte administration following the arrest of Castillo.[9]