Loreto Gutiérrez Hurtado is the director of the National Security Department —DSN— of the Cabinet of the Presidency of the Government. Brigadier general of the Air and Space Army Engineers Corps, she has held since November 2023 one of the main advisory and crisis coordination positions of La Moncloa.
Her name has gained prominence after the dismissal of the head of communication of the DSN after the agency published an alert with the first report on the massive influx of migrants in Ceuta. The Government attributed the dismissal to a “loss of confidence”, although it has not publicly identified the removed official nor detailed through an official resolution who made the decision.
Aerospace engineer and staff officer graduate
Born in 1970, Gutiérrez Hurtado is aerospace engineer from the Polytechnic University of Madrid. She entered the General Air Academy in September 1996 and is a staff officer graduate.
Throughout her career, she has held technical and planning positions in the Engineering and Quality Section of Wing 35, at the Getafe Air Base; in the Maintenance Directorate of the Logistics Support Command and in the Plans Division of the Air Force General Staff.
She also served as technical director of the A400M and MRTT programs, related to military transport and air-to-air refueling aircraft, within the General Directorate of Armament and Material. She also participated in international deployments in Indonesia, Afghanistan, and Chad.
The first general of the Air Force
In August 2023, the Council of Ministers approved her promotion to brigadier general. Gutiérrez Hurtado thus became the first woman of the Air and Space Army to reach the rank of general and the fourth in the entire Spanish Armed Forces.
Before joining La Moncloa, she was the deputy director of Transport Aircraft, Trainers, and Helicopters of the Logistics Support Command. Her appointment as director of National Security was approved on November 28, 2023, and published the next day in the Official State Bulletin.
What functions does Loreto Gutiérrez have in La Moncloa?
The National Security Department is the body that advises the president of the Government on this matter. Its head has the rank of general director and is organically dependent on the Deputy Directorate of the president's Cabinet.
Under the direction of Gutiérrez Hurtado, the DSN maintains the Situation Center of La Moncloa, carries out early warning and monitoring of risks and crises, and acts as the permanent technical secretariat of the National Security Council. It also coordinates crisis management exercises and the special communications of the Presidency of the Government.
The agency works in areas such as immigration, cybersecurity, maritime and aerospace security, energy, organized crime, and non-proliferation. It is not the National Intelligence Center, although both agencies participate in the state structure of National Security and collaborate within their respective competencies.
President of the forum against disinformation
Gutiérrez Hurtado also chairs the Forum against Disinformation Campaigns in the field of National Security, composed of representatives from the Administration, civil society, the private sector, and the academic world. In May 2026, she continued to hold both the direction of the DSN and the presidency of this forum.
In September 2025, the Government awarded her the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Civil Guard, at the proposal of the Ministry of the Interior, in recognition of her merits and professional career.