Herbert Salvatierra

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

Herbert Salvatierra Becerra (born 20 September 1980) is a Bolivian lawyer and politician who served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies from Pando, representing circumscription 66 from 2010 to 2015. Salvatierra pertains to a generation of conservative parliamentarians who entered the political arena in the heat of the conflicts of the late 2000s, agitating for regional autonomy for the eastern departments and pushing for the rejection of the new, progressive Constitution ratified during the first Evo Morales administration. Polarization over these issues reached its breaking point in Pando, resulting in the Porvenir massacre, which dealt a heavy blow to the department's opposition-controlled prefecture and civic committee. In the aftermath, Salvatierra was propelled to the presidency of the reconstituted Pando Civic Committee, remaining an ally of the department's jailed prefect, Leopoldo Fernández, for the duration of his political career.

Herbert Salvatierra
Official portrait, 2014
Member of the Chamber of Deputies from Pando circumscription 66
In office 19 January 2010 – 18 January 2015
Substitute	Mariluz Gonzales
Preceded by	Ronald Camargo
Succeeded by	Sebastián Texeira^[α]
Constituency	Bolpebra Cobija
Personal details
Born	Herbert Salvatierra Becerra (1980-09-20) 20 September 1980 (age 42) Cobija, Pando, Bolivia
Political party	Integration Column
Alma mater	University of Valle
Occupation	Lawyer politician

Early life and career

Herbert Salvatierra was born on 20 September 1980 in Cobija, Pando, to Hernán Salvatierra and Lady Becerra. He concluded his primary and secondary education in Cobija, graduating from the city's American Institute before enrolling in the University of Valle, where he studied law at the academy's campuses in Cochabamba and La Paz. Returning to Pando, Salvatierra gained notoriety in the department's carnival circuit, leading his own comparsa (troupe) before joining the Pando Carnival Comparsas Association, serving as the organization's treasurer, vice president, and later president between 1999 and 2005.^[1][2]

Political career

Salvatierra entered the political field as a consultant for the Pando prefecture before being elected to the Pando Civic Committee,^[3] two institutions that, starting from the inauguration of Leopoldo Fernández as the department's first popularly-elected prefect in 2006, joined forces in support of departmental autonomy. In the country's eastern departments, the coalition between local civic committees and conservative prefects constituted the main source of opposition to the first Evo Morales administration. It was in Pando where polarization between supporters of these two groups reached its breaking point in 2008 when an armed confrontation left over a dozen dead in Porvenir.^[4][5] During the ensuing state of emergency, Fernández was ousted from office and arrested, and the Pando Civic Committee was dismantled; its primary leaders—including the body's president, Ana Melena de Suzuki—sought asylum in Brazil.^[6][7]

The dramatic fall of Pando's highest political leaders catapulted Salvatierra to the top of the opposition in the department. He was elected acting president of the civic committee when the organization's remaining members reconstituted the body following the lifting of the state of emergency.^[7] With Salvatierra at its helm, the Pando Civic Committee launched a reinvigorated bid to stymie the national government's agenda, campaigning for the "no" vote in that year's constitutional referendum. Nearly sixty percent of Pandinos voted to reject the 2009 Constitution, though the national results ultimately saw the document's passage into law.^[8]

With the campaign underway for the 2009 general election, Salvatierra was brought on to run for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies. He was elected to represent circumscription 66 on behalf of the National Convergence (CN) alliance, a grouping that, in Pando, was led by Roger Pinto and Leopoldo Fernández, among others.^[9] The former prefect remained regionally influential despite his incarceration, founding from prison the Integration Column (CI) civic group, of which many of Pando's opposition parliamentarians, including Salvatierra, became members.^[10][11] Though CI aligned itself with Democratic Unity for the 2014 general election, Salvatierra was not nominated for reelection.^[6][10] Upon the conclusion of his term, he returned to Cobija to dedicate himself to municipal matters, serving as the city's secretary of economic development during the mayoral administration of Luis Gatty Ribeiro.^[12] During the gubernatorial bid of Carmen Eva Gonzales as part of an alliance headed by CI,^[13] Salvatierra was nominated for a seat in the Pando Departmental Assembly.^[14] However, the party's third-place finish precluded him from attaining the position.^[15]

Electoral history

Electoral history of Herbert Salvatierra

Year	Office	Party		Alliance		Votes			Result	Ref.
						Total	%	P.
2009	Deputy		Independent		National Convergence	11,313	53.22%	1st	Won	^[16]
2021	Assemblyman		Integration Column		Democratic Integration Community	6,046	19.45%	3rd	Lost	^[17]^[β]
Source: Plurinational Electoral Organ | Electoral Atlas

References

 

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Notes

1. Redistribution; circumscription 62.
2. Presented on an electoral list. The data shown represents the share of the vote the entire party/alliance received in that constituency.

Footnotes

1. Gonzales Salas 2013, p. 266.
2. Vargas & Villavicencio 2014, p. 141.
3. Romero Ballivián 2018, p. 536.
4. Moldiz Castillo 2016, p. 69.
5. Romero Ballivián 2018, p. 220.
6. Romero Ballivián 2018, p. 537.
7. . La Prensa (in Spanish). La Paz. 6 January 2009. Archived from the original on 3 February 2009. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
8. Moldiz Castillo 2016, pp. 74–75.
9. Gonzales Salas 2013, p. 267.
10. Staff writer (30 May 2014). Written at La Paz. "Agrupación de Leopoldo Fernández se suma al Frente Amplio de Doria Medina". La Patria (in Spanish). Oruro. Agencia de Noticias Fides. p. 6. from the original on 4 October 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
11. "Surge la Agenda Castañera de Pando" (PDF). Sol de Pando (in Spanish). Cobija. 3 October 2020. p. 4. (PDF) from the original on 17 October 2021. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
12. "Cobija celebró el 'Día Mundial del Medio Ambiente'". El Progreso (in Spanish). Cobija. 13 June 2016. from the original on 4 October 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
13. "Gonzales: 'Quiero poner fin a 14 años de chacota en la Gobernación de Pando'" (in Spanish). La Paz. ERBOL. 3 January 2021. from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
14. "Lista Final de Candidaturas Habilitadas de las Organizaciones Políticas y Alianzas en Pando: Comunidad de Integración Democrática" (PDF). pando.oep.org.bo. Pando Departmental Electoral Tribunal. 2021. p. 2. (PDF) from the original on 4 October 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
15. "Publicación de Resultados, Primera Vuelta y Segunda Vuelta: Elección de Autoridades Políticas Departamentales, Regionales y Municipales 2021" (PDF). oep.org.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Plurinational Electoral Organ. 1 March 2021. pp. 77–78. (PDF) from the original on 1 March 2022. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
16. "Elecciones Generales 2009 | Atlas Electoral". atlaselectoral.oep.org.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Plurinational Electoral Organ. Retrieved 5 June 2022.
17. "Eleccion de Asambleístas por Población 2021 | Atlas Electoral". atlaselectoral.oep.org.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Plurinational Electoral Organ. Archived from the original on 31 January 2023. Retrieved 5 June 2022.

Bibliography

• Gonzales Salas, Inés, ed. (2013). Biografías: Historias de Vida en la Asamblea Legislativa Plurinacional (PDF) (in Spanish). Instituto Internacional para la Democracia y la Asistencia Electoral; Fundación Friedrich Ebert; ERBOL; Editorial Gente Común. pp. 266–268. ISBN 978-99954-93-05-9. OCLC 876429743.
• Moldiz Castillo, Carlos Ernesto (2016). Pando Antes y Después de 2008: Élite Política y Régimen Provincial Híbrido (Thesis) (in Spanish). La Paz: Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, Facultad de Derecho y Ciencias Politicas.
• Romero Ballivián, Salvador (2018). Quiroga Velasco, Camilo Sergio (ed.). Diccionario Biográfico de Parlamentarios 1979–2019 (in Spanish) (2nd ed.). La Paz: Fundación de Apoyo al Parlamento y la Participación Ciudadana; Fundación Konrad Adenauer. pp. 536–537. ISBN 978-99974-0-021-5. OCLC 1050945993 – via ResearchGate.
• Vargas, María Elena; Villavicencio, Jois, 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 de Bolivia. p. 141. OCLC 961105285 – via Calaméo.

External links

• Deputies profile Vice Presidency (in Spanish).