Paz Esteban López (born 1958) is a Spanish

intelligence officer An intelligence officer is a person employed by an organization to collect, compile or analyze information (known as intelligence) which is of use to that organization. The word of ''officer'' is a working title, not a rank, used in the same way ...

. She served as Director of the National Intelligence Centre (CNI) from 2020 to 2022. She was the first woman to hold the post and was previously the Secretary-General of the agency from 2017 to 2019, under

Félix Sanz Roldán Félix Sanz Roldán (born 20 January 1945) is a retired Spanish Army general and intelligence officer who served as Director of the National Intelligence Centre (CNI) from July 2009 to July 2019. He served as Chief of the Defence Staff (Spain), C ...

Early life

Esteban was born in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

in 1958. She studied at the

Autonomous University of Madrid The Autonomous University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; UAM), commonly known as simply la Autónoma, is a Spanish public university located in Madrid, Spain. The university was founded in 1968 alongside the Autonomous Univers ...

, where she graduated in May 1978 with a degree of Philosophy and Literature. She is an expert in ancient and medieval history. After graduating, Esteban began to prepare the public exam for archives and libraries civil servants. However, a relative of his father offered her to work in a "Ministry", which ended up being the Spanish intelligence service.

Early career

She joined the Superior Centre for Defense Information (CESID) in 1983 when General Emilio Alonso Manglano was director. Esteban specialized in

foreign intelligence Intelligence assessment, or simply intel, is the development of behavior forecasts or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organisation, based on wide ranges of available overt and covert information (intelligence). Assessments d ...

, although she has never worked as a

field agent In espionage, a field agent is an agent who works in the field as opposed to one who operates at the office or headquarters. A field agent can work alone or in a group but usually has a case officer who is in charge. Field agents can be undercover ...

. Her first jobs within the intelligence service were the preparation of reports on the permanence of Spain in

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

, before the 1986 referendum. She also elaborated, as an analyst, reports relating the 11-S and 11-M terrorist attacks. Until 2004 she held positions focused on foreign intelligence and, as of this year, she was promoted to managing posts. In 2010, CNI Director Sanz Roldán appointed her as his chief of staff, a position she held until June 2017, when she was appointed Secretary-General of the intelligence agency (second-in-command) after the resignation of Beatriz Méndez de Vigo.

Secretary-General of the CNI

In June 2017, CNI secretary-general Beatriz Méndez de Vigo announced her resignation and, despite the efforts of the Deputy Prime Minister, Sáenz de Santamaría, to convince her otherwise, her resignation was effective on June 13, 2017. On June 9, 2017, the

Council of Ministers A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...

nominated Esteban as secretary-general. The

Monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority and power i ...

effectively appointed her on June 13, 2017. In July 2019, the second five-years-term of the director of the CNI, Sanz Roldán, ended. At that time, the Spanish government (

Sánchez I Government Sánchez is a Spanish family name. Historical origins "The illustrious Sanchez Family... is descended from one of a number of Gothic knights (caballeros) who in the year 714 escaped from the "barbara furia" of the Mohammedan invasion and took ...

) was a caretaker government due to the April 2019 general election. The impossibility of forming a government provoked that the Prime Minister could not renew the director for a new term or to nominate a new candidate. Due to this situation, Esteban, who was the Secretary-General of the CNI and, therefore, the agency's second authority, assumed the direction ''ad interim'' of the intelligence service, being the first woman to hold the post.

Director of the CNI

On January 31, 2020, the Office of the Prime Minister announced that, Esteban, who since July 2019 was acting director of the agency, would be confirmed as the new CNI Director and as the CCN Director. Esteban was officially appointed on February 5, 2020. She was sworn in on February 10, 2020. On February 19 the central government appointed Arturo Relanzón Sánchez-Gabriel as the new secretary-general of the agency, being the first man to hold the position. On May 10, 2022, Esteban was dismissed as director of the CNI by the Spanish government following revelations that several national and regional politicians had been the target of

phone tapping Telephone tapping (also wire tapping or wiretapping in American English) is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitorin ...

using the controversial Pegasus spyware.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Esteban Lopez, Paz 1958 births Living people Spanish spies