Patricia Mancilla
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Mancilla and the second or
maternal family name is Martínez.
Patricia Mancilla
Official portrait, 2014
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
from La Paz
In office
19 January 2010 – 18 January 2015
Substitute
Eliseo Suxo
Preceded by
Enrique Marín
Succeeded by
Natalia Calle
Constituency
Party list
Personal details
Born
Patricia Mancilla Martínez
9 October 1967 (age 55)
Asiento Araca, La Paz, Bolivia
Political party
Movement for Socialism (since 2000)
Other political
Conscience of Fatherland (1999–2000)
affiliations
Occupation
•
Politician
•
trade unionist
•
Patricia Mancilla Martínez (born 9 October 1967) is a Bolivian politician and trade
unionist who served as a party-list member of the Chamber of Deputies from La
Paz from 2010 to 2015. A member of the Movement for Socialism, she previously
served on the Cairoma Municipal Council from 2000 to 2005.
Mancilla was raised in Asiento Araca in the agricultural Araca Valley. She worked as
a promotora and delivered catechesis on Catholic theology. In tandem, Mancilla played
an active role in regional trade unionism, holding positions within the Bartolina Sisa
Confederation of peasant women throughout the 1990s.
Elected to the Cairoma Municipal Council as a member of Conscience of Fatherland in
1999, Mancilla quickly defected to the Movement for Socialism and held positions within
the party's internal structure. As a member of the Chamber of Deputies, Mancilla
launched a court petition seeking the decriminalization of abortion, which failed but did
produce some modest outcomes for the abortion-rights movement. She was not
nominated for reelection.
Early life and career[edit]
Early life and education[edit]
Patricia Mancilla was born on 9 October 1967 in Asiento Araca,[1] a rural
settlement in Cairoma – then part of Luribay – in the Loayza Province of southern La
Paz Department.[2] The village lies in the predominantly Aymara-populated Araca Valley,
at the junction between three ecoregions: highland Altiplano, subtropical Yungas, and
mid-elevation Valle [es].[3] The temperate climate makes the area prime for agricultural
production, especially potato cultivation;[4] families like Mancilla's lived and worked
as campesinos, producing such crops for market consumption and mild subsistence.[5]
Mancilla attended the Germán Busch School in Cairoma, where she completed primary
and secondary and received her baccalaureate.[6] The eldest among six siblings, familial
duties prevented her from pursuing higher education, only attending preparatory
courses in linguistics at the Higher University of San Andrés.[7] Later, Mancilla
participated in popular communication programs at the Bolivian Catholic University and
received a diploma in municipal administration.[8]
Career and trade unionism[edit]
Mancilla settled in the city of La Paz as a young adult but retained close ties to her
home community – as is customary among many rural-urban migrants.[9] In Cairoma,
she worked as a promotora, providing basic women's health and vocational
education.[7] Mancilla also served as a catechist of the Catholic Church, a position that –
beyond the religious element – played an elevated public role in rural areas, fomenting
the presence and leadership of women in agrarian communities.[10]
From the mid-1990s, Mancilla scaled positions within the peasant labor movement as
part of the region's agrarian and women's unions. She held membership in the workers'
sub-center of Cairoma in 1994 and joined the municipality's agrarian workers' center the
following year.[10] From 1996 to 1997, she served as provincial executive of the Bartolina
Sisa Confederation in Loayza Province and was secretary of relations of
its departmental affiliate from 2007 to 2008.[11]
Chamber of Deputies[edit]
Election[edit]
Further information: 2009 Bolivian general election
Mancilla first forayed into politics as a member of Conscience of
Fatherland (CONDEPA) in 1999.[10] The party – already in steep decline when Mancilla
joined – faced numerous difficulties, engulfed in disputes between deceased
leader Carlos Palenque's principal successors: daughter Verónica Palenque and life
partner Remedios Loza.[12] Although Mancilla won a seat on the Cairoma Municipal
Council representing CONDEPA in that year's elections, she defected shortly thereafter,
as the party's hemorrhaging partisan base was absorbed into the Movement for
Socialism (MAS).[10]
Already in 2000, Mancilla joined the MAS, and from 2002 to 2004, she served as
regional director of the party in the provinces of La Paz.[8] Mancilla's rise to senior
positions within both the MAS and trade union sector resulted in her inclusion on the
party's parliamentary slate in the 2009 election. She won a seat representing La Paz in
the Chamber of Deputies.[13]
Tenure[edit]
Within the majority MAS caucus, Mancilla composed part of the small delegation of
women legislators representing the Bartolina Sisa Confederation – ten in total, with six
in the lower chamber.[14] Mancilla served on the Chamber of Deputies' Human Rights
Commission for the length of her term, spending two years on the Human Rights
Committee before being reassigned to the Gender Rights Committee for the following
three.[§]
Backed by the non-governmental organization Ipas,[15] Mancilla launched a petition
before the Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal, seeking that a dozen articles covering
women's issues in Bolivia's antiquated Penal Code – including those outlawing
abortion – be declared unconstitutional under the country's new constitution.[16] The
action was taken independently of her party and generated unusual disunity within the
MAS:[17] President Evo Morales classified the practice as "a crime" but remained largely
neutral on the topic; parliamentary leaders like Emeliana Aiza and Eugenio
Rojas expressed outright opposition, while yet more legislators and cabinet
members backed the prospect.[18]
The constitutional court issued a ruling on the case in early 2014, upholding most
provisions in the penal code while expunging the controversial requirement for judicial
authorization before any legal abortion could take place. Abortion-rights
advocates accepted the ruling as a moderate success for reproductive rights,[17] with
Mancilla expressing support for the court's final judgment.[19]
Mancilla was not nominated for reelection at the end of her term. [13]
Commission assignments[edit]
•
Human Rights Commission
o Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Committee (2010–2012)[20]
o Gender Rights Committee (2012–2015)[21]
Electoral history[edit]
Electoral history of Patricia Mancilla
Year
Office
Party
Votes
Total
%
P.
Result Ref.
1999 Substitute councillor
Conscience of Fatherland
16.59% 3rd Won
[22][α]
2009
Movement for Socialism 1,099,259 80.28% 1st Won
[23][α]
Deputy
360
Source: Plurinational Electoral Organ | Electoral Atlas
References