Cecilia Requena
Headshot of Cecilia Requena
Official portrait, 2020
Senator for La Paz
Assumed office
3 November 2020
SubstitutePorfirio Menacho
Preceded byAncelma Perlacios
Personal details
Born
Cecilia Isabel Requena Zárate

(1967-03-05) 5 March 1967
Munich, West Germany[1][2]
SpouseJosé Antonio Quiroga
Alma materBolivian Catholic University
Occupation
  • Educator
  • politician
  • researcher
SignatureCursive signature in ink
WebsiteOfficial website

Cecilia Isabel Requena Zárate (born 5 March 1967) is a Bolivian academic, environmentalist, and politician serving as senator for La Paz since 2020. Educated at the Bolivian Catholic University with postgraduate experience at institutes in Europe and the Americas, Requena got her career start as an environmental activist, holding leadership positions in prominent environmental rights agencies. She later did consulting and research work for non-government organizations such as the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, even directing the Bolivian branch of Transparency International.

A critic of the extractivist policies of President Evo Morales, in 2019, Requena ran for a seat in the Senate as part of the opposition Civic Community's all-female roster of senatorial candidates. Following the annulment of those results, Requena was re-nominated for the 2020 general election and won the seat, becoming the first opposition senator to represent La Paz in over a decade. Requena's tenure focused its work on environmental policy, particularly calling out the continued support for extractive industries under Morales's successor, Luis Arce.

Early life and education

Cecilia Requena was born on 5 March 1967 in La Paz.[3] She completed her primary and secondary studies at the city's German international school, from which she graduated in 1985.[4][5] She later attended the Bolivian Catholic University, where she completed a bachelor's in communication studies and a master's in public policy and administration.[6] During this time and after, Requena also undertook graduate studies at home and abroad; she received a postgraduate diploma in socio-environmental projects from the Latin American Forum of Environmental Sciences in Argentina and completed a second master's in diplomacy and international relations at the Diplomatic Academy of Bolivia.[5][7]

Requena additionally holds a postgraduate diploma in contemporary art critique,[8] having also taken courses at various institutes and universities in Europe and the Americas, including in leadership for the twenty-first century at the Harvard Kennedy School and others in environmental and human resource management and environmental and citizen journalism. In addition to Spanish, Requena is also fluent in English, French, and German; she received a sprachdiplom while in high school, attained an equivalent certificate from the Goethe-Institut, and took perfectionment courses in Freiburg; completed the Test of English as a Foreign Language; and took classes in French at academic institutes in Paris.[5]

Academia and environmental activism

An avid environmentalist from a young age,[4] Requena served on the directorate of the Bolivian Association for the Defense of Nature between 1992 and 1993, first as coordinator for communication, lobbying, and public awareness and later as the organization's executive secretary. In 1995, she was brought on as a consultant for the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Environment, where she also served as coordinator for communication within the ministry's National Directorate for the Conservation of Biodiversity.[5]

In education, Requena served as a docent at the Bolivian Catholic University, where she taught courses on ethics and leadership as well as on environmental issues, including climate change, ecological impact, and political ecology.[7][9] Outside of academia, Requena worked as a researcher and held managerial positions for multiple national and international non-governmental organizations operating in the country, including the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and Transparency International Bolivia.[8] During this time, she directed the Bolivian branches of the Canadian Executive Service Organization and Transparency International.[5]

Chamber of Senators

Election

During the presidency of Evo Morales, Requena established herself as a vocal critic of the administration's support for and expansion of extractive industries. "The government of Evo Morales, which presents itself internationally as a defender of Mother Earth, will remain in Bolivian history as the regime that promoted radical and devastating extractivism," she stated.[10] Requena attributed these faults to Morales's allegedly anti-democratic practices, stating: "where there is no democracy, it is even more difficult to defend nature."[4] She became increasingly politically active following the abolishment of presidential term limits, joining more than 180 other prominent intellectuals in penning a roadmap for the country's transition from an "authoritarian and corporate" state towards a more democratic one.[11]

In the leadup to the 2019 general election, Requena participated in the formation of the Civic Community (CC) alliance, which promoted the presidential candidacy of Carlos Mesa.[4] Among the primary pillars of CC's political platform were democracy0 and environmentalism but also feminism and women's rights,[12] a fact that led the alliance to nominate an all-female slate of senatorial candidates.[13] Requena was selected to represent the La Paz Department in the Senate,[14][15] a choice potentially brought about at the suggestion of her spouse, José Antonio Quiroga, CC's then-campaign coordinator.[16][17]

A few days after the election date, Requena was projected as one of La Paz's winning senatorial candidates, alongside three from the ruling Movement for Socialism (MAS-IPSP).[18] As a result of the annulment of the 2019 results, Requena was prevented from being seated but was re-nominated to contest the 2020 election,[19] where she repeated the previous year's victory.[20] In being elected, Requena became the first non-ruling party candidate to win a Senate seat in La Paz since 2005,[21] bucking the trend of 2009 and 2014, when the MAS swept all four of the department's Senate seats.[22][23] She is thus the first opposition senator to represent La Paz in the Plurinational Legislative Assembly; the last, Luis Vásquez Villamor, served in the now-defunct National Congress.[21][24]

Tenure

Once in office, Requena dedicated much of her senatorial term to environmental causes, as she had done throughout her career. Given her minority caucus's limited ability to craft and pass legislation, much of this work revolved around her powers of parliamentary oversight.[4] As a member and chair of the Senate's various environmental committees, Requena oversaw multiple investigations into the government's pro-extraction policy, especially corruption in the Mining Administrative Jurisdictional Authority, the state-run mining activity supervisor.[25]

In particular, Requena sought to highlight the lack of action against illegal mining in protected areas such as La Paz's Madidi National Park, one of the most biodiverse areas in the world.[26][27] She attributed this lack of enforcement to the government's acquiescence before politically powerful mining cooperatives, whom she accused of promoting "terror and violence" against those who investigate illegal activity.[28][29] In one instance, Requena herself was attacked with firecrackers and dynamite while conducting an in-person inspection of the park.[30] In mid-2022, she and other CC legislators presented an actio popularis against mining activities that damage the environment in Madidi.[31] The appeal was largely accepted by a court in La Paz later that year, which ruled that legislative and executive authorities should pass new legislation regulating the use of mercury in gold mining, given the immense pollution and environmental damage it causes.[32]

Commission assignments

  • Land and Territory, Natural Resources, and the Environment Commission (President; 2021–2022)[33]
    • Environment, Biodiversity, Amazon, Protected Areas, and Climate Change Committee (Secretary; 2020–2021, 2022–present)[34][35]
  • Ethics and Transparency Commission (2022–present)[36]

Electoral history

Electoral history of Cecilia Requena
Year Office Alliance Votes Result Ref.
Total  % P.
2019 Senator Civic Community 497,844 29.83% 2nd Annulled [37][lower-greek 1]
2020 Civic Community 486,139 28.58% 2nd Won [38][lower-greek 1]
Source: Plurinational Electoral Organ | Electoral Atlas

Publications

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cecilia Requena.

Notes

  1. 1 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. ↑ "Protagonistas". Coordinadora de la Mujer. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  2. ↑ "Cecilia Isabel Requena Zarate". Cámara de Senadores. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
  3. ↑ "¿Quiénes son las candidatas a primeras senadoras de Comunidad Ciudadana?". Página Siete (in Spanish). La Paz. 15 July 2019. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Carrillo, Liliana (5 December 2021). "Requena: 'Al MAS le lleva demasiada energía el acaparar abusivamente el poder'". Página Siete (in Spanish). La Paz. Archived from the original on 7 December 2021. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Curriculum Vitae: Cecilia Isabel Requena Zárate". iisec.ucb.edu.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Bolivian Catholic University. Archived from the original on 1 February 2023. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  6. ↑ Calle, Esperanza (16 July 2019). "Cecilia Requena a primera senaturía de La Paz por CC". El Alteño (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 11 August 2019. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  7. 1 2 "Cecilia Requena: Docente en la UCB y la Escuela para la Producción y la Competitividad". desarrollos.epc-ucb.edu.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Bolivian Catholic University. Archived from the original on 7 September 2017. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  8. 1 2 "Estos son los perfiles de las 9 candidatas a primeras senadores por CC" (in Spanish). La Paz. Urgente.bo. 15 July 2019. Archived from the original on 1 February 2023. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  9. ↑ "Requena: Propuesta de CC es replantear idea de desarrollo". Opinión (in Spanish). Cochabamba. 31 July 2019. Archived from the original on 1 February 2023. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  10. ↑ "Alertan sobre los riesgos ambientales frente al uso del fracking en Bolivia". ipdrs.org (in Spanish). La Paz: Instituto para el Desarrollo Rural de Sudamérica. 31 July 2018. Archived from the original on 23 October 2021. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  11. ↑ Rojas, Lorena (8 September 2017). "Nace la agenda 21F para un cambio de régimen". Página Siete (in Spanish). La Paz. Archived from the original on 8 September 2017. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  12. ↑ "'Planteamos democracia, feminismo y ecología'". El Diario (in Spanish). La Paz. 18 July 2019. Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  13. ↑ "Mesa decide que mujeres sean las primeras candidatas a senadoras". El Deber (in Spanish). Santa Cruz de la Sierra. 26 June 2019. Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  14. ↑ "CC: 8 profesionales y una indígena aspiran a senadoras". Opinión (in Spanish). Cochabamba. Agencia de Noticias Fides. 15 July 2019. Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  15. ↑ Juárez, Ivone (20 September 2020). "Una abogada exministra y una comunicadora ecologista pugnan por el voto en La Paz". Página Siete (in Spanish). La Paz. Archived from the original on 6 October 2020. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
  16. ↑ "Leo Choque renuncia y debilita a CC en El Alto". El Alteño (in Spanish). 9 May 2019. Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  17. ↑ "Conozca a los cinco actores-clave convocados por la Fiscalía y los documentos que les salpican con el Caso Golpe de 2019" (in Spanish). La Paz. Agencia Boliviana de Información. 29 June 2021. Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  18. ↑ "Cierra cómputo en La Paz y el MAS obtiene tres de los cuatro senadores" (in Spanish). La Paz. ERBOL. 23 October 2019. Archived from the original on 24 October 2019. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  19. ↑ "Mesa ratifica lista de mujeres candidatas a primeras senadoras por CC para las elecciones 2020". Los Tiempos (in Spanish). Cochabamba. Agencia Boliviana de Información. 18 December 2019. Archived from the original on 9 October 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  20. ↑ Paredes, Ivan Alejandro (24 October 2020). "El MAS tendrá en el Senado una bancada sindical y sin 'invitados'". El Deber (in Spanish). Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Archived from the original on 1 November 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  21. 1 2 Informe al H. Congreso Nacional: Elecciones Generales 2005 (in Spanish). La Paz: Corte Electoral Nacional. 2006. p. 245. Free access icon
  22. ↑ "Representantes electos para la Asamblea Legislative Plurinacional". Opinión (in Spanish). Cochabamba. 7 December 2009. Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  23. ↑ Barriga, Daymira (13 October 2014). "El partido del gobierno se queda con los 4 escaños en el Senado". La Razón (in Spanish). La Paz. Archived from the original on 28 December 2022. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  24. ↑ Condori, Betty (7 December 2009). "Del Congreso a la Asamblea Plurinacional". Opinión (in Spanish). Cochabamba. Archived from the original on 2 February 2023. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  25. ↑ "Requena: 'El MAS funciona como una maquinaria de ecocidio'". El Mundo (in Spanish). Santa Cruz de la Sierra. 18 October 2022. Archived from the original on 1 December 2022. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  26. ↑ "Senadora Requena exige frenar la minería descontrolada en Madidi". El Diario (in Spanish). La Paz. 4 April 2022. Archived from the original on 6 April 2022. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  27. ↑ "Cecilia Requena: 'Me llamaron asesina por un accidente de bus con gente a favor de la minería en el Madidi'" (in Spanish). La Paz. Brújula Digital. 7 September 2022. Archived from the original on 7 September 2022. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  28. ↑ "Senadora denuncia 'terror' minero en el norte de La Paz". Los Tiempos (in Spanish). Cochabamba. 3 June 2022. Archived from the original on 3 June 2022. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  29. ↑ Graham, Thomas (19 October 2022). Written at La Paz. "Bolivian gold miners push into national park despite country's green rhetoric". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 13 January 2023. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  30. ↑ Ruiz Leotaud, Valentina (3 April 2022). "Bolivian senator, Indigenous representatives attacked by illegal miners". mining.com. Vancouver: Glacier Media. Archived from the original on 30 November 2022. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  31. ↑ "Parque Madidi: Conceden en parte la acción popular e instruyen regular el uso del mercurio". Página Siete (in Spanish). La Paz. 2 September 2022. Archived from the original on 3 September 2022. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  32. ↑ "Acción Popular por el Parque Madidi: Sala Constitucional instruye regular el uso del mercurio en la minería aurífera" (in Spanish). La Paz. ERBOL. 2 September 2022. Archived from the original on 3 September 2022. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  33. ↑ "La Cámara de Senadores conformó sus 10 Comisiones y 20 Comités: Gestión Legislativa 2021–2022". web.senado.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Chamber of Senators. 9 November 2021. Archived from the original on 9 November 2021. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  34. ↑ "La Cámara de Senadores conformó sus 10 Comisiones y 20 Comités: Gestión Legislativa 2020–2021". web.senado.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Chamber of Senators. 10 November 2020. Archived from the original on 10 January 2022. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  35. ↑ "La Cámara de Senadores conformó sus 10 Comisiones y 20 Comités: Gestión Legislativa 2022–2023". web.senado.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Chamber of Senators. 3 November 2022. Archived from the original on 4 November 2022. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  36. ↑ "La Cámara de Senadores conformó su Comisión de Ética y Transparencia: Gestión Legislativa 2022–2023". web.senado.gob.b (in Spanish). La Paz: Chamber of Senators. 22 December 2022. Archived from the original on 22 December 2022. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  37. ↑ "Publicación de Resultados Nacionales: Elecciones Generales 2019" (PDF). www.oep.org.bo (in Spanish). Plurinational Electoral Organ. 2019. pp. 9, 19. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 May 2020. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  38. ↑ "Elecciones Generales 2020 | Atlas Electoral". atlaselectoral.oep.org.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Plurinational Electoral Organ. Archived from the original on 1 February 2023. Retrieved 5 June 2022.
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