Rafael Arcángel Quispe Flores (born 24 October 1969), often referred to as Tata Quispe, is a Bolivian indigenous activist and politician who served as general executive director of the Indigenous Development Fund from 2019 to 2020. He previously served as a substitute party-list member of the Chamber of Deputies from La Paz under María Eugenia Calcina from 2015 to 2019.
Born in Coro Coro and raised in rural poverty, Quispe completed secondary education in El Alto. He studied law at multiple universities, though he never completed a degree. He held prominent positions of local leadership in and around his Aymara community, serving as mallku of the Caquingora Marka and later mallku of the Pakajaqi Suyu. In 2010, he was elected to the governing board of the National Council of Ayllus and Markas of Qullasuyu, serving as mallku of the organization's Extractive Industries Commission. His opposition to President Evo Morales gained him national prominence during the conflict over the Isiboro Sécure National Park and Indigenous Territory, during which time he led indigenous protests against a planned highway crossing through the protected area.
Quispe entered national politics in the 2014 general election, losing a race for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies but later being authorized to serve as a substitute deputy. Quispe's humorous but polemic style of politics made him a controversial figure, with members of both the ruling Movement for Socialism and his own caucus denouncing him for various acts. In 2019, President Jeanine Áñez appointed him to direct the country's Indigenous Development Fund, and he later briefly served as vice minister of decolonization. In late 2020, Quispe launched his candidacy for the governorship of La Paz, running on a ticket led by his own Somos Pueblo party. He narrowly failed to move to the second round, placing third in the election. Shortly thereafter, Quispe announced his retirement from politics.
Early life and career An ethnic Aymara, Rafael Quispe was born on 24 October 1969 in the Sicuypata Ayllu of La Paz's Coro Coro Municipality, a locale that, according to local indigenous custom, is situated in the Caquingora Marka of the Pakajaqi Suyu. He is the youngest of eight siblings born to Manuela Flores; their father, a local miner, died when he was 18. Raised in rural poverty, Quispe completed lower secondary education in Coro Coro before dropping out to focus on cattle grazing and sheepherding. As a young adult, he entered the Armed Forces to fulfill his period of mandatory military service. Despite being an exceptional serviceman, Quispe was precluded from attaining the rank of corporal due to his lack of a high school diploma, a fact that motivated him to complete his education. He moved to El Alto, graduating from the Center for Accelerated Secondary Education before going on to work in a variety of blue-collar fields, including as a cobbler, mechanic, and service driver. During this time, Quispe intermittently studied law at multiple institutions, including the Higher University of San Andrés, before settling at the University of Valle, though he ultimately did not finish his degree.
Returning to Coro Coro, in 2000, Quispe, together with his mother, assumed a position of local leadership within his ayllu. He held prominent posts in the region until 2005, being named mallku of his marka and later mallku of the entire suyu. In the 2002 general election, he threw his weight behind the Pachakuti Indigenous Movement, supporting the presidential campaign of Felipe Quispe. Following the election of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, Quispe was an active opposition leader, taking part in protests in El Alto during the 2003 gas conflict. Quispe's rise within indigenist circles culminated in his 2010 election as a member of the governing board of the National Council of Ayllus and Markas of Qullasuyu (CONAMAQ), serving as mallku of the organization's Extractive Industries Commission. Upon the conclusion of his term, he served as CONAMAQ's representative at the Andean Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations, an international organization with presence in six countries and consultative status with the United Nations.
Originally a supporter of President Evo Morales, Quispe later soured on the indigenous leader. In particular, he accused Morales's policies of failing to reflect his environmentalist rhetoric, citing the president's support for extractive industries such as mining and petroleum. In an interview with Bill Weinberg for the NACLA Report on the Americas, Quispe denounced the government's environmental policy as a "systematic violation of the rights of the peoples and of the Pachamama," accusing Morales of being "the foremost violator of Mother Earth." Quispe's active opposition to the Morales administration gained him national notoriety in 2011 when he became one of the primary leaders of the indigenous march in defense of the Isiboro Sécure National Park and Indigenous Territory, which protested the government's attempt to construct a highway running through the protected area without prior consultation with the native population.
Chamber of Deputies Election
By late 2013, Quispe, having risen to national prominence, sought to position himself as an indigenous alternative to the ruling Movement for Socialism (MAS-IPSP), with his name emerging as a potential candidate for the presidency on behalf of CONAMAQ. Despite stating that he would accept heading the ticket if nominated, Quispe admitted that his chances of reaching the presidency were negligible. Nonetheless, he outlined that his front's main goal was not the presidency but rather to attain independent indigenous representation in the Plurinational Legislative Assembly.
In November, Quispe's faction of CONAMAQ brokered a political agreement with the Green Party (PVB-IEP) to jointly contest the 2014 general elections. To this was added the "freethinkers," a faction of MAS dissidents led by former Chamber of Deputies president Rebeca Delgado. However, internal disputes over the coalition's presidential ballot quickly fractured the alliance, with the "freethinkers" pushing Delgado for the presidency while CONAMAQ lobbied for Quispe to head the ticket. In February 2014, Quispe broke CONAMAQ's pact with the PVB, opting instead to sign an alliance with Samuel Doria Medina's National Unity Front (UN). As part of their five-point agreement, Doria Medina pledged to give indigenous candidates a twenty percent share on the alliance's electoral list.
As a means of consolidating a single presidential ticket, UN and its allies presented five pre-candidates as possible contenders for the nomination, including Quispe. The winner of this makeshift primary election was selected through a nationwide poll conducted between 19 and 20 April. On 21 April, Doria Medina was presented as the winning candidate, attaining the preference of sixty-nine percent of the 2,652 individuals surveyed. Unofficial data released by La Razón placed Quispe in third place with ten percent of the vote. In the ensuing weeks, Quispe was presented on the coalition's preliminary electoral list as a possible candidate for substitute senator together with Soledad Chapetón. However, Quispe rejected the nomination, maintaining that he was unwilling to be the running mate of someone "who did not fight for the demands of the country's indigenous movement." He also expressed his discontent with the lack of indigenous presence on the final list of candidates, threatening to withdraw CONAMAQ's support if the issue was not rectified.
Ultimately, Quispe was nominated as a candidate for deputy, placing fifth on the Democratic Unity (UD) coalition's electoral list. UD's mediocre performance in the La Paz Department garnered it just four party-list deputies, precluding Quispe from entering the chamber. However, in November, UD requested that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) authorize Quispe to serve as a substitute deputy, filling the vacancy left by María Eugenia Calcina, who assumed the primary position due to Jaime Navarro's last-minute withdrawal from the race.
Tenure Throughout his term in the Chamber of Deputies, Quispe's humorous but polemic style of politics, described by Página Siete as "characterized by... sarcastic statements or by attitudes that he assumed in certain controversial cases," made him a well-known and contentious figure. In one instance, Quispe infamously gifted a "basic level" Aymara language translation dictionary to President Morales when the debate over the head of state's native language proficiency was in vogue. When Morales sought to amend the Constitution to abolish term limits, Quispe protested the move, attending a session of the lower house adorned with a cardboard Inca crown, mockingly declaring: "I also want to be a king." The deputy's lighthearted attitude "provoke[d] laughter from the journalists who interview[ed] him, from the politicians who surround[ed] him, and from internet users who never tire[d] of sharing his statements on social networks." Conversely, critics accused Quispe of being a "clown" who "turns everything into a joke" in order to get "three more minutes in the media," with one MAS legislator describing him as the "Chapulín Colorado" of the Legislative Assembly. For his part, Quispe defended his behavior, stating that "I do striking things, but I do them so that the people understand... in a didactic way what is happening in the country." "The message you give to people is better accepted with humor," he stated.
The many political stunts Quispe pulled were often accompanied by serious accusations against ruling party officials or otherwise made light of allegations levied against him. In early 2015, Quispe became involved as a plaintiff in an investigation into embezzlement within the Indigenous Development Fund. Inspectors found that over 700 public works projects sponsored by the Indigenous Fund had been left unfinished or never even existed at all, with the public resources having been distributed into private accounts or political campaigns, constituting Bs102 million in economic damage to the State. In March of that year, Quispe accused —then the MAS candidate for the governorship of La Paz—of having Bs1 million in assets of unknown origin, adding that she had received Bs99,528 from the Indigenous Fund during her time as a legal representative for the Bartolina Sisa Confederation. Huanca went on to lose the gubernatorial election, for which she sued Quispe on allegations of political harassment and discrimination.
The oral trial against Quispe was opened by La Paz's First Anti-Corruption and Violence Against Women Court on 7 February 2018. Quispe failed to attend the hearing three times, considering it a waste of time, for which an arrest warrant to secure his presence was issued. In response, Quispe challenged judicial officials to apprehend him, even waiting outside the office of departmental prosecutor Edwin Blanco, bringing with him a tray of fifteen eggs "in case he lacks them." After continued frequent absences, law enforcement officials arrested Quispe on 16 May, transferring the legislator in handcuffs to the courthouse. There, as an alternative to preventative detention, a judge permitted him to defend himself in freedom so long as he did not leave the country and refrained from making any public statements about Huanca. In a subsequent press conference, Quispe appeared before media outlets in silence, having tapped shut his mouth with a piece of paper labelled "do not ask me about her."