Luis Gallego

Luis Gallego Condori (born 21 June 1968) is a Bolivian lawyer and politician who served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies from Potosí, representing circumscription 39 from 2010 to 2015.

Born in a peasant community in one of the least developed regions of rural Potosí, Gallego completed only portions of his primary education before dropping out to focus on agricultural work. As a young adult, he began scaling the ranks of traditional leadership, holding posts of both cultural and political significance within his Quechua community.

In 2009, Gallego was elected to the Chamber of Deputies on behalf of the Movement for Socialism, a party he militantly supported, only to later grow disenfranchised with. He sought to be elected ombudsman of Bolivia in 2022, but his previous political service disqualified him from holding the position.

Luis Gallego was born on 21 June 1968 to Severino Gallego and Dorotea Condori, a peasant family native to Huayllani in the rural foothills of northern Potosí. Gallego spent his childhood in poverty, studying up to middle school before dropping out to dedicate himself to agricultural work. As a young adult, Gallego was selected to serve as a jilanqu, an indigenous authority charged with serving several jisk'a ayllus, or small communities. In the ensuing years, he reached the position of segunda mayor, the highest authority in his ayllu. Gallego's political trajectory led him to hold office on hisayllu's school board and serve as its communal mayor before finally rising to become corregidor, the most important political position within the ayllus.

Election

In 2009, Gallego was selected by the ayllus to run for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies. He registered his candidacy with the Movement for Socialism (MAS-IPSP) – a party he had been an active member of since 2005 – and was presented to run in Potosí's circumscription 39, encompassing his home Bustillo Province. He won the race handily, defeating his next closest competitor by a wide margin, although his percentage is diluted down to a 42.1 percent plurality whenthe high tally of blank and null votes are taken into account.

Tenure

In parliament, Gallego drafted more than twenty bills relating to agriculture, irrigation, and mining in northern Potosí and worked to secure the delivery of agricultural machinery to the department's municipalities. He successfully procured a collective ownership title in favor of the Chullpa ayllu and was a leading proponent of the bill that declared the waters of the disputed Silala River a strategic natural resource of the state. Upon the conclusion of his term, Gallego was not nominated for reelection.

Commission assignments

• Plural Justice, Prosecutor's Office, and Legal Defense of the State Commission
  • Rural Native Indigenous Jurisdiction Committee (Secretary: 2010–2012, 2013–2014)
• Plural Economy, Production, and Industry Commission
  • Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Committee (2012–2013)
• Constitution, Legislation, and Electoral System Commission
  • Constitutional Review and Legislative Harmonization Committee (2014–2015)

Despite his militant support for the MAS – even once controversially threatening to whip those who did not vote in favor of the ruling party – Gallego later grew disenfranchised with the party. He ultimately resigned from its ranks in 2017, claiming that it had grown "elite" and no longer attended to the needs of the indigenous peoples of Potosí. Gallego spent the ensuing years in political retirement, during which time he graduated as a lawyer from the Bolivian Technological University.

In 2022, Gallego returned to the spotlight when he registered his application as a candidate for ombudsman. Despite an official prohibition on applicants who had held elective office in the previous eight years, Gallego was initially given the green light to move to the second phase. However, he was later disqualified upon opposition appeal, dashing his hopes of holding the position.