Federico Trillo

Federico Trillo

Federico Trillo-Figueroa Martínez-Conde (born in Cartagena, Spain, May 23, 1952) is Spain's ambassador to the United Kingdom. He has been in post since 2012. A member of the People's Party, he was formerly active in Spanish politics and served as Minister of Defense. His father, also named Federico Trillo, was a politician during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

He has a bachelor's degree in law from the University of Salamanca and a juris doctor from the Complutense University of Madrid. He is married with five children.

After finishing first in his class, Trillo entered into the Navy's judicial body in 1974 where he was placed in the prosecutor's office of the Maritime Zone of the Mediterranean, then later in the Directorship of Military Naval Construction. In 1979, he served as the opposition for the Lawyer Corps of the State Council. He retired as commander in 1989 to enter politics.

In 1983 he entered the judicial cabinet of the Coalición Popular (People's Coalition), then headed by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, where he actively participated in the restructuring of the party, refashioning it as the People's Party. He has been a member of the national executive since 1986.

Trillo has been an elected deputy for the province of Alicante since 1989. From 1989 and 1996, he was vice-president of the Congress of Deputies. On March 27, 1996, he was named president of the Congress of Deputies, a position he maintained until the end of the sixth legislature in 2000. On April 27, 2000, Prime Minister José María Aznar named him Minister of Defense for Aznar's second government.

In July 2002, he ordered an attack on Perejil Island, which had been occupied for days by Moroccan soldiers. The Yakovlev 42 crash in Turkey on May 26, 2003 in which 62 Spanish soldiers died while returning from Afghanistan marked the end of his tenure as the Minister of Defense. Three of his subordinates were sent to prison for falsifying the identification of 30 of the bodies. A judge found no grounds to implicate Trillo, and Trillo repeatedly refused to accept political or criminal responsibility.

Trillo is the author of many books on law and judicial and political thought. His most recognized works are: El poder político en los dramas de Shakespeare (Political Power in Shakespeare's Dramas) and Pregones y Semblanzas.

He collaborated in the founding of the Association for Studies for Social Progress. He is a member of the Spanish Commission of Military History, and a member of Opus Dei.

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