Juana Beazcoetxea

Juana Sofía Beazcoetxea Hernández (born in San Martín in 1580) is an Alexandrian-born Natopian–Shirerithian diplomat and civil servant. Alexandrian foreign consul (1625–1627, 1649-1651), Alexandrian ambassador to Shireroth (1637-1642), Regent of the Elian Union (Natopia) since 1654.

She had a long career in Alexandria, starting off at a prestigious law firm in 1602 after graduating with a master of legal letters. In 1609, she entered public office through an election to the municipal council of Adelentes. Her political career took a new height in 1611 when she was elected to the legislature of San Martín for the Partido Liberal de San Martín. Here, she quickly rose to fame across her island province. This famedom allowed her to stand for a vacancy in a by-election to the Alexandrian Imperial Assembly in 1616.

As a member of the libertarian faction of the Imperial Assembly, she was instrumental in securing the founding of a pan-Alexandrian liberal party, the Liberal Alliance in 1618. She was elected the party’s deputy leader, and in 1621 she took over as leader. Her first fight as leader of the liberal party was to push for electoral reform. By lobbying members of other parties, she managed to get minorities in all parties in the Assembly, including all liberal members, to support her electoral reform, which meant that there as a majority in the Assembly for it.

The first consul of Alexandria, J. A. J. Primo de Aguilar resigned after this defeat and new elections were held. Her party made a good result, finishing as the second-largest party in Alexandria after the conservative UMD which entered a coalition with the Socialist Party. Thus, Beazcoetxea became the leader of the opposition.

In the next Alexandrian elections of 1625, her party entered a grand coalition with the UMD after the radicalization of the Socialist Party. Beazcoetxea became vice president and foreign consul. Her tenure has foreign consul was cut short, however, due to suffering of breast cancer. She resigned her office in 1627 for intensive care. By 1629, she had made a recovery and entered academia as a lecturer in international policy. In 1634, she achieved a doctorate in political science with her dissertation on Storish relations with Shireroth.

By 1637, Alexandria was run by a Socialist minority government. The government, in an attempt to gain liberal sympathies, appointed Beazcoetxea to Alexandrian ambassador to Shireroth. She stayed in Shirekeep until 1642, when she was recalled as a protest to the nuclear bomb testings outside Ura'Bos. She found employment in the Alexandrian government as director of the foreign service. She returned to the government as foreign consul once again in 1649. The same year, she received Talenorian citizens (and thus Shirerithian denizenship) due to investments to Talcorp. Her influence in Talcorp took her closer to Kaiseress Noor, with whom she developed a friendship. The Kaiseress awarded Beazcoetxea with a noble title in the Two Martyrs (Natopia): Lady of Kinnladehügel–Gakkotsuzuka. She was also named Vicereine of the Two Martyrs.

As a lady and vicereine in the Two Martyrs (formerly Walstadt), Beazcoetxea, she oversaw the daily affairs of the government. This was good for her as the capital Asara Eliana was not far from Alexandria’s capital Geneva and she could easily commute between the cities.

When Alexandria experienced the dreadful Alexandrian influenza pandemic in 1651 which killed up to 80 percent of the Alexandrian population, Beazcoetxea was attending to business in Asara Eliana. As such, she was not affected but she lost her family (though she never married herself and had no children, she lost her brothers and their families). Once the fallout of the pandemic was clear, she understood that there was nothing to return to in Alexandria. Instead she claimed Natopian citizenship. Three years later she was named by Ayreon IV regent and steward of his Natopian holdings.

She was named High Commissioner to the Florian Republic in 1654 in order to oversee the Florian transition to independence after the Shirerithian protectorate triggered Article 3.2 and decided to leave the Shirerithian protection. Ultimately, her tenure as High Commissioner became, due to the traitorous activities by the local authorities, to be seen as a failure. Nonetheless, after the fall of Northcliff, she returned to Shirekeep for governmental work.