16 Facts About David Choquehuanca

David Choquehuanca Cespedes was born on 7 May 1961 and is a Bolivian diplomat, peasant leader, politician, and trade unionist serving as the 39th vice president of Bolivia since 2020.

An ethnic Aymara, Choquehuanca was born in Cota Cota Baja, later completing secondary education in Huarina, where he became an adherent of Marxist thought.

David Choquehuanca 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.

At exactly eleven years, David Choquehuanca's tenure was the longest of any foreign minister in Bolivian history and the second-longest of any government minister after Luis Arce.

David Choquehuanca represented the "moderate Indianist current" within the executive branch, a position that elevated him as the "third figure" in the Morales administration.

David Choquehuanca was born on 7 May 1961 in Cota Cota Baja, a minor hamlet situated along the shoreline of Lake Titicaca in La Paz's Omasuyos Province.

David Choquehuanca was raised Baptist and spoke only his native language Aymara until age seven, when he learned Spanish.

David Choquehuanca's father, Nicolas Choquehuanca, was a prominent peasant leader in the neighboring town of Huarina, where he led the local agricultural cooperative.

David Choquehuanca completed primary education in his home town, later moving to Huarina in 1971 to complete secondary at the General Jose Miguel Lanza School, where he graduated in 1980.

Shortly after graduating, David Choquehuanca moved to La Paz, studying philosophy at the Simon Bolivar Higher Teacher Training School, during which time he joined another students' group, the Revolutionary Tendency of Student Teachers.

David Choquehuanca completed only one year at the institute before dropping out to briefly dedicate himself fully to trade union activity.

Around this time, in 1984, David Choquehuanca first crossed paths with cocalero activist Evo Morales during a peasant youth congress.

Amid this power struggle, David Choquehuanca's position found itself weakened in the wake of the 2016 water crisis in La Paz, which saw increased scrutiny placed on the then-minister of environment, Alexandra Moreira, and the country's leading water authorities, most of whom had been quotas of David Choquehuanca's bloc, with Moreira having previously served as the foreign minister's chief of staff.

Shortly after his dismissal, David Choquehuanca was appointed to serve as secretary general of the Bolivarian Alliance, a position journalist Fernando Molina considered tantamount to being discreetly "exiled" to a secondary diplomatic post.

David Choquehuanca, in turn, was relegated as the party's vice-presidential candidate.

Likewise, the Bartolina Sisa Confederation and the Tupac Katari Federation both expressed "annoyance" at the lack of respect for their choices, pointing out that David Choquehuanca had support from organizations based in seven of the nine departments.