Severo Aguilar

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

Severo Aguilar Gabriel (born 11 March 1975) is a Bolivian politician and trade unionist who served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies from Potosí, representing circumscription 41 from 2010 to 2015. A member of the Movement for Socialism, he previously served as a member of the Constituent Assembly from Potosí, representing the same circumscription from 2006 to 2007.

Severo Aguilar
Official portrait, 2014
Member of the Chamber of Deputies from Potosí circumscription 41
In office 19 January 2010 – 18 January 2015
Substitute	Rita Callahuara
Preceded by	Severo Pacaja
Succeeded by	Circumscription abolished
Constituency	Chayanta
Constituent of the Constituent Assembly from Potosí circumscription 41
In office 6 August 2006 – 14 December 2007
Constituency	Chayanta
Personal details
Born	Severo Aguilar Gabriel (1975-03-11) 11 March 1975 (age 48) Futina, Potosí, Bolivia
Political party	Movement for Socialism
Occupation	Politician trade unionist

An ethnic Quechua, Aguilar spent his early life in the rural regions of northern Potosí, dedicated to work in agriculture and animal husbandry. Having spent a few years abroad and in other departments, Aguilar returned to his native Chayanta in the early 2000s, where he gained prominence locally as a community and organizational leader. Aguilar's active participation in promoting regional concerns catapulted his participation in politics, first in the Constituent Assembly, then the Chamber of Deputies, each time representing his home province.

Early life and career

Severo Aguilar was born on 11 March 1975 to Crisóstomo Aguilar Estrada and Felipa Gabriel Cruz, a peasant family native to Futina in northern Potosí's Chayanta Province—one of the poorest and most isolated regions in the country.^[1] An ethnic Quechua,^[2] Aguilar spent his childhood in rural poverty, working in agriculture and animal husbandry. Orphaned at around age 13, he relocated to Pocoata [es], briefly attending the local primary school before moving to Llallagua, where he completed secondary education and fulfilled his term of mandatory military service. Shortly after graduating, Aguilar traveled to Argentina, where he spent a year harvesting the tobacco and tomato crop, later settling in Santa Cruz for some time.^[3]

Upon returning to Potosí in 2001, Aguilar dedicated himself to promoting civic engagement in his community, pushing for greater allocation of resources in favor of public works and other infrastructure projects. From there, Aguilar quickly rose as a prominent local peasant leader. In January 2002, he was appointed as executive secretary of the Colquechaca Sectional Center, assuming the demands of the entire municipality's peasant movement. During the 2003 gas conflict, Aguilar led mobilizations against the government of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, rejecting the sale of natural gas to Chile and calling for the convocation of a constituent assembly to reform the Constitution—two demands that proved successful in the ensuing years.^[4]

Constituent Assembly

Election

Further information: 2006 Bolivian Constituent Assembly election

In 2006, in representation of the Unified Syndical Center of Indigenous Workers and Ayllus of the Chayanta Province, Aguilar was nominated for a seat in the newly-formed Constituent Assembly. Together with Irma Mamani, the pair was comfortably elected to represent circumscription 41 on behalf of the Movement for Socialism.^[5]

Tenure

For Aguilar, whose rural community lacked public transport services, the trek to Constituent Assembly's headquarters in Sucre required a four-hour hike through the foothills before a truck finally took him the rest of the way.^[6] Once sworn in, Aguilar was appointed the to assembly's Autonomies Commission, from which he pushed for the implementation of a broad system of indigenous self-government, including state recognition of indigenous customary law and control over natural resources situated in indigenous lands.^[7]

Commission assignments

• Departmental, Provincial, Municipal, and Indigenous Autonomies, Decentralization, and Territorial Organization Commission (2006–2007)^[8]

Chamber of Deputies

Election

Further information: 2009 Bolivian general election

For many members of the Constituent Assembly, prolonged procedural stalemate and limited debate made it difficult to stand out individually. As a result, few constituents continued political careers following the assembly's closure. Aguilar, on the other hand, was among the roughly one-tenth who did. In 2009, party bases in his home region nominated him to seek a seat in the Chamber of Deputies. He once again contested circumscription 41 and was elected by one of the largest margins of the entire election cycle, attaining nearly ninety percent of the popular vote.^[9]

Tenure

As a deputy, Aguilar sought to coordinate his work with municipal administrations in order to directly meet their needs. He promoted the allocation of public resources in favor of agriculture, the expansion of rural education, and the construction of infrastructure aimed at combating the consequences of climate change.^[10] Upon the conclusion of his term, he was not nominated for reelection,^[11] no less because the district he represented was abolished during 2014's decennial redistribution process.^[12]

Commission assignments

• Territorial Organization of the State and Autonomies Commission
  • Departmental Autonomies Committee (Secretary: 2012–2015)^[13][14]
• Plural Economy, Production, and Industry Commission
  • Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Committee (2010–2011)^[15]
• International Relations and Migrant Protection Commission
  • International Relations, Migrant Protection, and International Organizations Committee (Secretary: 2011–2012)^[16]

Electoral history

Electoral history of Severo Aguilar

Year	Office	Party		Votes			Result	Ref.
				Total	%	P.
2006	Constituent		Movement for Socialism	8,496	61.48%	1st	Won	^[17]
2009	Deputy		Movement for Socialism	21,279	88.23%	1st	Won	^[18]
Source: Plurinational Electoral Organ | Electoral Atlas

References

Footnotes

1. Vargas & Villavicencio 2014, p. 34; Romero Ballivián 2018, p. 18.
2. Pinto Quintanilla 2011a, p. 50.
3. Gonzales Salas 2013, p. 289.
4. Gonzales Salas 2013, pp. 289–290; Vargas & Villavicencio 2014, p. 34.
5. Vargas & Villavicencio 2014, p. 34; Romero Ballivián 2018, pp. 18–19.
6. "Los asambleístas llegaron a pie, en camión y aviones" [Assemblymen Arrived on Foot, by Truck, and on Planes]. La Razón (in Spanish). La Paz. 6 August 2006. from the original on 20 October 2022. Retrieved 19 September 2022 – via Red REPAC.
7. Powęska 2013, p. 265.
8. Pinto Quintanilla 2011b, p. 1087.
9. Gonzales Salas 2013, p. 290; Romero Ballivián 2018, p. 19.
10. Gonzales Salas 2013, p. 291; Vargas & Villavicencio 2014, p. 34.
11. Romero Ballivián 2018, p. 19.
12. "De 2009 a 2014, seis departamentos perdieron distritos urbanos y cuatro restaron rurales" [From 2009 to 2014, Six Departments Lost Urban Districts and Four Lost Rural Ones] (in Spanish). La Paz. Oxígeno.bo. 15 May 2014. from the original on 23 March 2023. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
13. . diputados.bo (in Spanish). Chamber of Deputies. Archived from the original on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
14. Vargas & Villavicencio 2014, pp. 309, 316.
15. Vargas & Villavicencio 2014, p. 318.
16. . diputados.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Chamber of Deputies. Archived from the original on 26 May 2011. Retrieved 24 November 2022.
17. "Elecciones Constituyentes 2006 | Atlas Electoral". atlaselectoral.oep.org.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Plurinational Electoral Organ. Retrieved 5 June 2022.
18. "Elecciones Generales 2009 | Atlas Electoral". atlaselectoral.oep.org.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Plurinational Electoral Organ. Retrieved 5 June 2022.

Bibliography

• Gonzales Salas, Inés, ed. (2013). Biografías: Historias de vida en la Asamblea Legislativa Plurinacional (PDF) (in Spanish). Editorial Gente Común; ERBOL; Fundación Friedrich Ebert; IDEA Internacional. pp. 289–291. ISBN 978-99954-93-05-9. OCLC 876429743.
• Pinto Quintanilla, Juan Carlos, ed. (2011). Enciclopedia histórica documental del proceso constituyente boliviano: Preámbulo (PDF) (in Spanish). La Paz: Vicepresidencia del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia. ISBN 978-99954-735-8-7. OCLC 880378197.
• Pinto Quintanilla, Juan Carlos, ed. (2011). "Enciclopedia histórica documental del proceso constituyente boliviano: Informes por comisiones" (PDF) (in Spanish). 3 (1). La Paz: Vicepresidencia del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia. OCLC 876376594. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Powęska, Radosław (2013). Indigenous Movements and Building the Plurinational State in Bolivia. Organization and Identity in the Trajectory of the CSUTCB and CONAMAQ. Warsaw: University of Warsaw Center for Latin American Studies. ISBN 978-83-62992-12-6. OCLC 990784447.
• Romero Ballivián, Salvador (2018). Quiroga Velasco, Camilo (ed.). Diccionario biográfico de parlamentarios 1979–2019 (in Spanish) (2nd ed.). La Paz: FUNDAPAC; Fundación Konrad Adenauer. pp. 18–19. ISBN 978-99974-0-021-5. OCLC 1050945993 – 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 de Bolivia. p. 34. OCLC 961105285 – via the Internet Archive.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Severo Aguilar.

• Constituent Assembly (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 30 October 2007.
• Parliamentary profile Office of the Vice President (in Spanish).