Zaida Cantera de Castro (born 6 June 1977) is a Spanish retired military officer and politician currently affiliated with the

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...

(PSOE). She has been a deputy for

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

in the 11th and Legislatures.

Military career

Zaida Cantera entered the

General Military Academy The General Military Academy (in Spanish: Academia General Militar) is a higher training center of the Spanish Army, responsible for the initial training for officers of the Arms and Corps of the Army, and for the officers of the Civil Guard. It ...

in 1997, receiving her specialization in Signals at the , where she graduated in 2003, receiving her commission as lieutenant. She also holds Master's degrees in Networks and Information Systems and Communication and Information Systems for Security and Defense. She was assigned to the Signals Unit of the Armored Brigade and participated in international missions such as the conflicts in Kosovo and Lebanon, reaching the rank of major in the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

. After returning from the latter country she began to suffer

sexual harassment Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions fro ...

from a superior, a fact that she denounced before the Central Military Court. In 2014, she requested her departure from the Armed Forces and was definitively discharged in 2015. Cantera recounted these episodes of harassment in the book ''No, mi general'', in co-authorship with

UPyD Union, Progress and Democracy ( es, link=no, Unión, Progreso y Democracia , UPyD ) was a Spanish political party founded in September 2007 and dissolved in December 2020. It was a social-liberal party that rejected any form of nationalism, espe ...

deputy

Irene Lozano Irene Lozano Domingo (born 17 June 1971) is a Spanish writer, journalist, and politician, who served as President of the Consejo Superior de Deportes and Secretary of State for Sports of Spain from 2020 to 2021 and as Secretary of State for Glob ...

Political career

On 20 December 2015, Cantera was elected a member of the

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Ma ...

as part of the

PSOE The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...

list for

. In the investiture vote of

Mariano Rajoy Mariano Rajoy Brey (; born 27 March 1955) is a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, when a vote of no confidence ousted his government. On 5 June 2018, he announced his resignation as People's Party lead ...

, she was one of the 15 socialist MP's not that abstained from voting against the party lines, and she joined the PSOE on 5 January 2017 in order to vote in the primaries of the 39th federal congress in favor of

Pedro Sánchez Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (; born 29 February 1972) is a Spanish politician who has been Prime Minister of Spain since June 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since June 2017, having pr ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cantera, Zaida 1977 births 20th-century Spanish military personnel 21st-century Spanish military personnel 21st-century Spanish women writers Living people Members of the 11th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 12th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 13th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Military personnel from Madrid Politicians from Madrid Spanish army officers Spanish Socialist Workers' Party politicians Women members of the Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 14th Congress of Deputies (Spain) 20th-century Spanish women