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Biography
María Cecilia Chacón Rendón is a Bolivian lawyer, political scientist and the former Minister of Defense. As of taking office on 6 April 2011, she became the first woman to occupy that office. She served as General Director of Multilateral Relations (Spanish: Directora General de Relaciones Multilaterales) and Chief of Cabinet for the Vice Ministry of Foreign Economic and Commercial Relations (Spanish: Jefa de Gabinete del Viceministerio Relaciones Económicas y Comercio Exterior) in the Foreign Ministry under President Evo Morales. She also worked in the Water Ministry.
She resigned from the post of Minister of Defense during the 2011 Bolivian protests in reaction to the governments violent crackdown on demonstrators opposed to a highway project in a national park.