Felipe Quispe

Who is Felipe Quispe?

Felipe Quispe Huanca "El Mallku" is an ethnic Aymara Bolivian political leader. He heads the Pachakuti Indigenous Movement and has also been general secretary of the United Union Confederation of Working Peasants of Bolivia. 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 an indigenous republic — which would take the name "Collasuyu" — in the Aymara-majority regions of Bolivia.

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