David Choquehuanca

David Choquehuanca Céspedes (born 7 May 1961) is a Bolivian diplomat, peasant leader, politician, and trade unionist serving as the 39th vice president of Bolivia since 2020. A member of the Movement for Socialism, he previously served as minister of foreign affairs from 2006 to 2017 and as secretary general of ALBA from 2017 to 2019.

An ethnic Aymara, Choquehuanca was born in Cota Cota Baja, later completing secondary education in Huarina, where he became an adherent of Marxist thought. He studied philosophy at institutes in La Paz and Havana before joining the indigenous peasant labor movement, during which time he became acquainted with ''cocalero'' activist Evo Morales, with whom he went on to form the Movement for Socialism. Through the late 1990s and early 2000s, Choquehuanca served as a key advisor to indigenous organizations and peasant leaders, including Morales, and was the national coordinator of the Nina Program, an NGO dedicated to training activist leaders.

In 2006, Morales tapped Choquehuanca to head the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a position he exercised for over a decade, becoming one of Morales' most trusted government officials. At exactly eleven years, Choquehuanca's tenure was the longest of any foreign minister in Bolivian history and the second-longest of any government minister after Luis Arce. As foreign minister, Choquehuanca oversaw a break in relations with the United States and the expulsion of its ambassador, deepened relations with Bolivia's left-wing neighbors without alienating more conservative Latin American governments, and headed the country's historic lawsuit against Chile at The Hague, though he was no longer in office when the International Court of Justice ruled against Bolivia in 2018. Choquehuanca represented the "moderate Indianist current" within the executive branch, a position that elevated him as the "third figure" in the Morales administration. Choquehuanca's significant grassroots support led him to be promoted as a possible presidential successor to Morales, a concept that strained relations between himself and the president and culminated in his removal as minister in 2017, relegating him to diplomatic "exile" as secretary general of ALBA.

Following Morales' forced removal in 2019, Choquehuanca was put forward by allied social organizations as his party's candidate for the presidency in the rerun general elections scheduled for 2020. However, Morales instead selected Arce to head the ticket, leaving Choquehuanca as his running mate. Elected with fifty-five percent of the vote, Choquehuanca assumed office in November 2020, becoming the country's second indigenous vice president after Víctor Hugo Cárdenas. Choquehuanca's tenure as Arce's second-in-command saw him gain increased influence within the internally divided ranks of the Movement for Socialism, with a not insignificant ''Choquehuanquista'' faction vying to postulate him as the party's next presidential candidate, challenging the possibility of a second Arce term or even a Morales 2025 comeback.

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