Zaida Cantera

Zaida Cantera de Castro (born 6 June 1977) is a Spanish retired military officer and politician currently affiliated with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). She has been a deputy for Madrid in the 11th and 12th Legislature of Spain Legislatures.

Military career
Zaida Cantera entered the General Military Academy in 1997, receiving her specialization in Signals at the Hoyo de Manzanares Academy of Engineers, where she graduated in 2003, receiving her commission as lieutenant. She also holds master's degrees in Networks and Information Systems and Communication and Information Systems for Security and Defense.

She was assigned to the Signals Unit of the Armored Brigade and participated in international missions such as the conflicts in Kosovo and Lebanon, reaching the rank of major in the Army. After returning from the latter country she began to suffer sexual harassment from a superior, a fact that she denounced before the Central Military Court. In 2014, she requested her departure from the Armed Forces and was definitively discharged in 2015. Cantera recounted these episodes of harassment in the book No, mi general, in co-authorship with UPyD deputy Irene Lozano.

Political career
On 20 December 2015, Cantera was elected a member of the Congress of Deputies as part of the PSOE list for Madrid. In the investiture vote of Mariano Rajoy, she was one of the 15 socialist MP's not that abstained from voting against the party lines, and she joined the PSOE on 5 January 2017 in order to vote in the primaries of the 39th federal congress in favor of Pedro Sánchez.