The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Heraldo Muñoz, announced that the President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet , appointed lawyer and former Minister Mario Fernández Baeza as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Chile to Austria, after that country granted its agrément.
Ambassador Fernández holds a bachelor's degree in Legal Science from Universidad de Chile and has pursued studies in Political Science, Public International Law, History and Philosophy at Heidelberg University, where he earned his Ph.D.
The new ambassador was Minister of State at the Ministry of National Defense and the General Secretariat of the Presidency during the government of Ricardo Lagos. During this period, he also served as Ambassador of Chile to the Federal Republic of Germany. In addition, during the administrations of Presidents Patricio Aylwin and Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, he was Undersecretary of the Ministry of National Defense.
During his extensive career, Mario Fernández has been Minister of the Constitutional Court of Chile, consultant and official of United Nations in Santiago and Project Director of the United Nations Programme for Development (UNDP) in Costa Rica. Since 2013, he has been Adviser to the National Institute for Human Rights.
The newly appointed Ambassador to Austria has an extensive track record in the areas of teaching and research and is the author of various publications on public law and political science.