The Embassy in Vienna is a place of representation and serves in particular to maintain bilateral relations between El Salvador and Austria. It is headed by Ms. Julia Emma Villatoro Tario, an empathetic and competent person who has been the Ambassador of El Salvador to Austria since 2020. She is also representing the Permanent Mission of El Salvador to the United Nations in Vienna.
On her way to the diplomatic parquet, Ms. Julia Emma Villatoro Tario exercised various positions. She worked for a long time as a lawyer at the family court and the constitutional court. At the end of 2005, she joined the Executive Branch to work for the competition authority „Superintendencia de Competencia“. In her professional career, she filled important positions such as head of investigation and head of legal unit and practising the profession on economic competition matters as prosecutor. Her extensive know-how brought her to join for the first time the Salvadoran diplomatic service in Vienna.
In 2017, she was appointed as Ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg and Head of Mission to the European Union in Brussels. This enabled her to maintain numerous other international relations in the above mentioned countries.
Ms. Julia Emma Villatoro Tario took her time to personally answer the questions and concerns with a great commitment. She talked about the strict separation of the multitude of tasks she manages together with a small, collegial and efficient team. These demanding tasks additionally brought new challenges due to the changed situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to the usual consular activities, these increasingly included the economic fields of business.
She made special mention of the “Horizont 3000” programme, which is an NGO working in El Salvador and financially supported by the Austrian Cooperation Agency (ADA) among others. The NGO prioritizes work with rural women and youth in the agroecology sector, food security and mitigation of the effects of climate change.
In Vienna, the goals and results of the sustainable development of the project „Nuestros pequeños hermanos El Salvador“ (NPH) are coordinated by Wolfgang Martinek.
Since the „Latin America Day and Week 2023“ on 18 September 2023, organized by the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKO), El Salvador strengthened its relations to increase economic development.
Another important task is to raise public awareness of the smallest country in Central America as a tourist attraction with its multi-layered rural treasures and beautiful natural landscapes composed of volcanoes, beaches, forests and the incredible waves of Surfcity.
A friendly welcome and farewell was exchanged by the Ambassador Ms. Julia Emma Villatoro Tario and the Minister Counsellor of the Embassy Mr. José Manuel Recinos on the one hand for my work and on the other hand of my interest in their Embassy and the country of El Salvador. The amount of information recieved has led to a better perception and awareness of El Salvador.
Article: Christine Ojo
Embassy contact details:
email contact: embajada.austria@rree.gob.sv