Overview

• Author and RAE academic Arturo Pérez-Reverte weighed in on X, calling Instituto Cervantes director Luis García Montero “mediocre y paniaguado” and alleging the Foreign Ministry seeks to control the Academy.
• Pérez-Reverte framed his criticism as a response to what he described as diplomatic overreach tied to Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares through the Cervantes leadership.
• The RAE plenary in Madrid unanimously approved a declaration defending director Santiago Muñoz Machado’s seven-year tenure and labeled García Montero’s earlier remark an aggression.
• Tensions escalated in the run-up to the X International Congress of the Spanish Language in Peru after García Montero said the RAE was led by an expert at doing business from his office, followed by a tense joint press conference.
• A day before posting, Pérez-Reverte presented a Captain Alatriste statue sketch at the RAE and avoided the dispute, while both institutions continue to publicly contest roles around the upcoming CILE event in Peru.