Felipe Quispe Explained

Felipe Quispe
Office:Member of the Chamber of Deputies
from La Paz
Term Start:6 August 2002
Term End:1 June 2004
Birth Name:Felipe Quispe Huanca
Birth Date:22 August 1942
Birth Place:Achacachi, La Paz, Bolivia
Death Place:El Alto, La Paz, Bolivia
Education:Higher University of San Andrés

Felipe Quispe Huanca "Mallku" (Quechua language: "condor"[1]), (22 August 1942 – 19 January 2021) was a Bolivian historian and political leader. He headed the Pachakuti Indigenous Movement (MIP) and was general secretary of the United Union Confederation of Working Peasants of Bolivia (CSUTCB).[2]

Biography

Quispe founded the Tupak Katari Indian Movement in 1979 and the Tupak Katari Guerrilla Army in 1990. His honorific name, Mallku, refers to the spirit of the mountains that surround and protect the People, and therefore is the source of life. "Mallku" means "peak" both in geography and in hierarchy.[3]

In 1984, he was one of the leading organisers of the Tupac Katari Guerrilla Army, a failed armed insurrection against the government. Quispe was arrested for his involvement in the movement on August 19, 1992. Quispe has worked for the establishment of a Tawantinsuyu republic - which would take the name "Collasuyu" - in the Aymara-majority regions of Bolivia.

Quispe was a staunch opponent of the neoliberal Washington consensus, and was also strongly against U.S.-led schemes toward coca eradication, which he sees as destroying a critical part of Aymara culture. He was involved heavily in the Bolivian Gas War.

Quispe ran a failed campaign in the 2005 presidential elections, which saw the victory of indigenous Evo Morales, leader of MAS (Movimiento al socialismo). Quispe was a vocal critic of Morales' government, characterising it as representing "neoliberalism with an Indian face".

Quispe died on 19 January 2021 in El Alto from cardiac arrest.[4]

Bibliography

Book: Evo's Bolivia: Continuity and Change . Farthing . Linda C. . Kohl . Benjamin H. . 2014 . University of Texas Press . Austin . 978-0292758681 .

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: New World of Indigenous Resistance. Noam Chomsky, Lois Meyer, and Benjamin Maldonado Alvarado. 2010 . City Light Publishers. 978-0-87286-533-4. 291.
  2. Book: Dispatches from Latin America. Teo Ballve and Vijay Prashad. . 81-87496-58-4. 158.
  3. Book: New world of indigenous resistance : Noam Chomsky and voices from North, South, and Central America. 2010. City Lights Books. Meyer, Lois., Maldonado Alvarado, Benjamín.. 978-0-87286-533-4. San Francisco. 456178314. registration.
  4. Web site: Fallece Felipe Quispe, "El Mallku". 2021-01-20. www.paginasiete.bo. spanish.