Jorge Choquetarqui

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Choquetarqui and the second or maternal family name is Jahuircata.

Jorge Adalberto Choquetarqui Jahuircata (born 23 April 1968) is a Bolivian community organizer and politician who served as a party-list member of the Chamber of Deputies from La Paz from 2010 to 2015.

Jorge Choquetarqui
Official portrait, 2014
Member of the Chamber of Deputies from La Paz
In office 19 January 2010 – 18 January 2015
Substitute	Paulina Rodríguez
Preceded by	Gustavo Torrico
Succeeded by	Franklin Durán
Constituency	Party list
Personal details
Born	Jorge Adalberto Choquetarqui Jahuircata (1968-04-24) 24 April 1968 (age 56) El Alto, La Paz, Bolivia
Political party	Movement for Socialism
Alma mater	Higher University of San Andrés (no degree)
Occupation	Organizer politician
Signature

Born and brought up in El Alto, Choquetarqui worked as a micro-business owner involved in several ventures, including textile manufacturing. He took an interest in the extensive network of community associations and organizations covering the city. He served on the neighborhood council of the 16 de Julio zone and assumed leadership positions on the school board at his primary school alma mater.

Elected president of the El Alto Parents' Federation in 2006, Choquetarqui led the organization through 2010. The sector's alignment with the government of Evo Morales cleared the path for his election to the Chamber of Deputies on the Movement for Socialism ticket in 2009. His organization's decision to put forward new representatives in 2014 meant he was not nominated for reelection.

Early life and career

Early life and education

Jorge Choquetarqui was born on 24 April 1968 in El Alto,^[1] in what was then a main district of the city of La Paz.^[2] He was raised by his father in a single-parent household alongside three siblings; their mother died when Choquetarqui was 7 years old. He began living independently at around age 15.^[3]

Choquetarqui attended the Los Andes Educational Unit located two blocks from his home until fifth grade primary. He completed his upper primary and secondary education at the state school Juvenal Mariaca, where he received his baccalaureate [es] in 1988.^[3] Although he initially pursued a degree in communication studies at the Higher University of San Andrés, lack of finances forced him to drop out after two years.^[4]

Career and community organizing

In the years after leaving university, Choquetarqui juggled several entrepreneurial ventures: he operated a small enterprise manufacturing local textiles, made a business purchasing and selling motorcycles, and provided share taxi services from two minibuses he owned.^[5]

Around this time, Choquetarqui became involved in his children's schooling due to deficiencies in the institutes they attended.^[3] His support for volunteer efforts led him to serve on the neighborhood council of the 16 de Julio zone of El Alto from 2001 to 2002, and he was elected to the school board^[α] of his alma mater, Los Andes, in 2003.^[1] Starting as general secretary, he later served as vice president and president of the body through to 2006.^[7]

In 2006, Choquetarqui was elected president of the El Alto Parents' Federation (FEDEPAF),^[1] the governing body representing the municipality's myriad school boards and parent-teacher associations.^[8] Reelected to a second two-year term in 2008, he was also made secretary of organizations on the National Parents' Board of Bolivia and served as the association's representative in El Alto.^[1]

Choquetarqui's tenure at the head of FEDEPAF maneuvered the organization through a complex web of ties with the government and other social movements. As with other associations, the relationship between FEDEPAF and the incumbent Evo Morales administration fluctuated on a dime between cooperation and antagonism,^[9] although the core state-union alliance prevailed in the long term.^[10] In a similar sense, FEDEPAF maintained a friend-foe accord with the nation's teachers' unions – allies around shared demands, adversaries during periods of prolonged strikes by education workers.^[11]

Chamber of Deputies

Election

Further information: 2009 Bolivian general election

Choquetarqui won a seat in the Chamber of Deputies on the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party list in the 2009 election. In typical MAS fashion, the nomination owed not to his influence in the party but to his prominence within allied organizations.^[7] FEDEPAF, as a constituent member of the Regional Workers' Center of El Alto (COR), had selected Choquetarqui as part of the COR's quota of representatives on the MAS's parliamentary slate.^[12]

This delicate network of alliances between disparate – often conflicting – social movement organizations was a major factor in the MAS's rise to electoral dominance. This is exemplified by the election of Choquetarqui of the parents' associations on the same list as Gilda Oporto of the teachers' unions,^[13] despite recurrent quarrels between their respective sectors.^[14][β]

Tenure

Choquetarqui split his service in the Chamber of Deputies between two parliamentary committees: that of cultures from 2010 to 2013 and that of gender rights from 2013 to 2015.^[16] He led the MAS bench in La Paz from 2013 to 2014^[17] and was president of the department's parliamentary delegation from 2014 to 2015.^[18] On the international stage, Choquetarqui was vice president for Bolivia at the Andean Parliament from 2011 to 2012.^[1]

At the end of his term, Choquetarqui was not put forward for reelection. The lack of permanence in office among MAS lawmakers became commonplace through successive cycles. Since the initial nomination had been the purview of the member's organization rather than the party, so too was the decision to re-nominate; in most cases, it was preferred instead to promote new leadership.^[7]

Commission assignments

• Rural Native Indigenous Peoples and Nations, Cultures, and Interculturality Commission
  • Cultures, Interculturality, and Cultural Heritage Committee (2010–2013)^[19]
• Human Rights Commission
  • Gender Rights Committee (2013–2015)^[20]

Electoral history

Electoral history of Jorge Choquetarqui

Year	Office	Party		Votes			Result	Ref.
				Total	%	P.
2009	Deputy		Movement for Socialism	1,099,259	80.28%	1st	Won	[21][γ]
Source: Plurinational Electoral Organ | Electoral Atlas

References

Notes

1. In the case of Bolivia, a school board (Spanish: Junta escolar) is definitionally more akin to a parent-teacher association than a traditional board of education. They are composed of parents, teachers, and other community members and provide a platform for these groups to provide volunteer support and assist in the administration of their school.^[6]
2. Another example is the equal weight given to cooperative and salaried mineworkers on the MAS's slate of candidates, despite frequent – often bloody – confrontations between both groups.^[15]
3. Presented on an electoral list. The data shown represents the share of the vote the entire party/alliance received in that constituency.

Footnotes

1. Vargas & Villavicencio 2014, p. 53.
2. Ruiz Parada 2011, p. 101.
3. Gonzales Salas 2013, p. 157.
4. Gonzales Salas 2013, p. 157; Vargas & Villavicencio 2014, p. 53.
5. Bolivia Decide 2013; Romero Ballivián 2018, p. 163.
6. El Diario 2023.
7. Romero Ballivián 2018, p. 163.
8. Ruiz Parada 2011, p. 49.
9. Faro de Vigo 2007.
10. Gonzales Salas 2013, p. 158; Romero Ballivián 2018, p. 163.
11. Los Tiempos 2008; Romero Ballivián 2018, p. 163.
12. El Alto Digital 2009.
13. Romero Ballivián 2018, pp. 163, 423.
14. ERBOL 2010.
15. Romero Ballivián 2018, pp. 387, 489.
16. Vargas & Villavicencio 2014, pp. 307–320.
17. Bolivia Decide 2013.
18. Noticias Fides 2014.
19. Prensa Diputados 2011; Prensa Diputados 2012; Vargas & Villavicencio 2014, p. 318.
20. Vargas & Villavicencio 2014, pp. 310, 314.
21. Atlas Electoral 2009.

Works cited

Online and list sources

• "Comisiones y Comités: Periodo Legislativo 2011–2012". diputados.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Cámara de Diputados del Estado Plurinacional. Archived from the original on 26 May 2011. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
• "Comisiones y Comités: Periodo Legislativo 2012–2013". diputados.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Cámara de Diputados del Estado Plurinacional. Archived from the original on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
• "Elecciones Generales 2009 | Atlas Electoral". atlaselectoral.oep.org.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Órgano Electoral Plurinacional. Archived from the original on 21 February 2023. Retrieved 17 October 2023.

Digital and print publications

• "Un alteño lidera la bancada paceña del partido oficialista" [An Alteño Leads the Ruling Party Bench in La Paz]. Bolivia Decide (in Spanish). La Paz. 13 January 2013. Archived from the original on 26 October 2019. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
• Choque, Elvis (7 July 2023). "El papel de las juntas escolares en debate" [The Role of School Boards Under Discussion]. El Diario (in Spanish). La Paz. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
• "Un diputado del MAS encabeza marcha de padres contra profesores" [MAS Deputy Leads Parents' March of Against Teachers] (in Spanish). La Paz. ERBOL. 20 May 2010. Archived from the original on 1 December 2023. Retrieved 1 December 2023 – via eju!.
• "FEJUVE y COR alteñas eligieron candidatos uninominales para el MAS" [El Alto FEJUVE and COR Elect the MAS's Single-Member Candidates]. El Alto Digital (in Spanish). 3 September 2009. Archived from the original on 24 September 2023. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
• "Los maestros paran hoy y exigen incremento salarial" [Teachers Strike Today and Demand Salary Increase]. Los Tiempos (in Spanish). Cochabamba. 23 May 2008. Archived from the original on 26 May 2008. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
• "MAS elige al diputado Jorge Choquetarqui como presidente de la brigada paceña" [MAS Elects Deputy Jorge Choquetarqui as President of the La Paz Delegation] (in Spanish). La Paz. Agencia de Noticias Fides. 30 January 2014. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
• "Sectores afines a Morales le quitarán apoyo si no les da tres ministerios" [Sectors Aligned with Morales Will Withdraw Support If He Does Not Grant Them Three Ministries]. Faro de Vigo (in Spanish). Redondela. EFE. 30 November 2007. Archived from the original on 3 December 2023. Retrieved 2 December 2023.

Books and encyclopedias

• Gonzales Salas, Inés, ed. (2013). Biografías: Historias de vida en la Asamblea Legislativa Plurinacional (in Spanish). Editorial Gente Común; ERBOL; Fundación Friedrich Ebert; IDEA Internacional. pp. 157–159. ISBN 978-99954-93-05-9. OCLC 876429743 – via the Internet Archive.
• Romero Ballivián, Salvador (2018). Quiroga Velasco, Camilo (ed.). Diccionario biográfico de parlamentarios 1979–2019 (in Spanish) (2nd ed.). La Paz: FUNDAPPAC; Fundación Konrad Adenauer. p. 163. ISBN 978-99974-0-021-5. OCLC 1050945993 – via the Internet Archive.
• Ruiz Parada, Carmen Beatriz, ed. (2011). Atlas de El Alto: Estudio con información estadística, descriptiva y analítica, sobre las condiciones, oportunidades e institucionalidad de la población y la ciudad (in Spanish). El Alto: Centro de Promoción de la Mujer "Gregoria Apaza". ISBN 978-99954-798-2-4. OCLC 773349050 – via the Internet Archive.
• Vargas Luna, María Elena; Villavicencio Arancibia, Jois Sarelly, eds. (2014). Primera Asamblea Legislativa Plurinacional de Bolivia, Cámara de Diputados: Diccionario biográfico, diputadas y diputados titulares y suplentes 2010–2015 (in Spanish). La Paz: Cámara de Diputados del Estado Plurinacional. p. 53. OCLC 961105285 – via the Internet Archive.

External links

• Parliamentary profile Office of the Vice President (in Spanish).

Chamber of Deputies of Bolivia
Preceded by Gustavo Torrico	Member of the Chamber of Deputies from La Paz 2010–2015	Succeeded by Franklin Durán