Robles appoints General Francisco Javier Marcos as the new head of the UME

The Ministry of Defense has appointed Army Major General Francisco Javier Marcos Rodríguez as the new head of the Military Emergency Unit (UME), replacing Lieutenant General Luis Martínez Meijide after his transfer to the reserve.

This was announced this Friday by the department headed by Margarita Robles, who has also indicated that Marcos will foreseeably take office next week.

Defense details in a note that General Marcos is a native of Toledo, where he was director of the Infantry Academy between 2017 and 2019. He had recently assumed command of the Army logistics centers after occupying, for three years, the command of the Army Air Mobile Forces (FAMET).

Throughout his career, and among other destinations, Marcos was in 2010 head of the Afghanistan Helicopter Unit and in 1998 he was head of operations of the Spanish unit in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He has also participated in other missions abroad, such as in Lebanon, Croatia and Sarajevo.. And he has been assigned to the General Staff of the Rapid Action Force, the Army General Staff, the JEME Cabinet and the General Directorate of Defense Policy.

General Marcos belongs to the XLIV Promotion of the General Military Academy, is a graduate of the General Staff, a graduate of the Unites States Army War College and a master's degree from the US Institute of Strategic Studies.. He also has a degree in Law from the University of Castilla-La Mancha, among other studies.

He replaces Lieutenant General Luis Martínez Meijide in office, who officially went to the reserve at the beginning of this month of August. In his case, he assumed the leadership of the UME in October 2019 and had to lead the response to major emergency situations such as the coronavirus pandemic or the volcano on the Canary Island of La Palma, in addition to foreign aid in catastrophes such as the Turkey earthquake.