Eduardo Humberto Maldonado

Eduardo Humberto Maldonado Iporre (born 16 November 1968) is a Bolivian economist, lawyer, and politician who served as senator for Potosí from 2010 to 2015.

Eduardo Maldonado was born on 16 November 1968 in Potosí to Eduardo Maldonado Urioste, a journalist, and Lourdes Iporre Peña, a music teacher.

On his mother's side, Maldonado is the grandson of Humberto Iporre Salinas, a prominent and prolific twentieth-century composer whose hymn "Potosino Soy" remains a popular fixture of the department's cultural heritage.

Maldonado completed his primary and secondary schooling in Potosí's Franciscan school, one of the city's principal academic institutions.

He studied law and economics at Tomás Frías University and completed a master's degree in higher education and constitutional law.

While a student, Maldonado played prominent roles in his sector's students' unions, commencing as president of his Franciscan school's student center.

Maldonado later held membership in the Local University Federation while attending Tomás Frías, during which time he served as first secretary of the organization's interfaculty committee, in addition to chairing the student committees of both the law and economics tracks.

He previously served as ombudsman of Potosí from 1998 to 2009.

A graduate of Tomás Frías University, Maldonado developed his leadership skills in the student movement and aligned himself toward socialist values from a young age.

He got his career start as Potosí's special representative to the Ombudsman's Office, holding the position for over a decade from the institution's inception in 1998.

Maldonado began working at the Ombudsman's Office of Bolivia in 1998, the year it was established.

Introduced as part of a package of new independent oversight bodies intended to guarantee the rule of law, the institution – headed in its early years by Ana María Romero – was tasked with protecting human and individual rights in the country.

Given Potosí's status as one of the three areas most prone to human rights violations, a special branch office was established in the city, with Maldonado appointed to head it.

He held the position for over a decade, supervising the regional human rights records of six presidential administrations between 1998 and 2009.

In previous years, Maldonado had repeatedly rejected offers from establishment political parties to contest elective office or serve in government administration.

In 2009, he was elected to represent Potosí in the Senate on behalf of the ruling Movement for Socialism.

A committed socialist since youth, he finally accepted a 2009 invitation by the ruling Movement for Socialism (MAS) to run for Senate representing Potosí.

Despite their lack of party affiliation, the MAS sought in figures like Maldonado and his former superior Romero to utilize the high level of public prestige associated with the Ombudsman's Office to build bridges with the urban middle class, long weary of the Evo Morales administration.

Despite his top billing on the MAS's slate of candidates, Maldonado nonetheless actively campaigned for the position.

In a region with a history of political violence, he nearly lost his life while on a campaign stop in the Tinguipaya Municipality after a mob of campesinos allegedly supportive of a rival candidate attacked his group.

He ultimately recovered from the ordeal and lived to win the race, part of the MAS's blowout victory in Potosí, in which it swept nearly the entirety of the department's parliamentary delegation.

Entering parliament, Maldonado was selected to chair the Senate's Constitution Commission, a position of particular import given the Legislative Assembly's early mission of regulating the implementation of the newly passed 2009 Constitution.

For the most part, Maldonado followed the party line when it came to drafting the so-called "structural laws" necessary for this task; he oversaw the quick-fire passage of three out of five such pieces of legislation through the Senate, the penultimate step to significantly reforming the country's election commission, electoral system, and constitutional court in accordance with the new constitution.

Beyond that point, however, Maldonado's relationship with MAS leadership quickly deteriorated.

Once in office, however, Maldonado quickly broke with his caucus over its often hierarchical leadership structure, becoming one of the first members of the 2010–2015 Legislative Assembly to defect from the ruling party.

In August 2010, he and other members of Potosí's parliamentary delegation began a multi-week hunger strike in protest of the government's lack of attention to regional demands.

The department – long one of the poorest in Bolivia – had entered a nineteen-day strike based on eleven grievances they wished addressed, among them increased industrialization, more public works, and the final settlement of Potosí's territorial disputes with Chile and Oruro–Potosí territorial dispute.

Although the administration eventually sealed a deal to end the protests, Maldonado and other legislators' participation remained a sore point among the MAS; Morales labeled them "traitors," party leaders in parliament announced their intent to seek a recall election against them, and yet others demanded their resignations.

Maldonado's split with the MAS reached its climax in early October when – amid ongoing negotiations regarding a controversial anti-racism bill – he was booted off of the Senate's Constitution Commission.

The removal of a senator mid-term from their commission assignment was unprecedented in Bolivian democratic history and came in response to Maldonado's decision to review sections of the legislation to address freedom of the press concerns presented by media outlets, bucking the orders of Morales, who had requested the law be approved without modifications.

Maldonado denounced his ouster as "unfair and incorrect" and accused the ruling party of being anti-democracy and counter-revolutionary.

For the duration of his term, Maldonado remained a staunch critic of the ruling party, operating in semi-opposition without formally aligning with the Senate's conservative caucus.

His was the first of many defections suffered by the MAS's parliamentary delegation between 2010 and 2015.

The dissidents, which came to be collectively known as the "freethinkers," grew to include two more senators – including Maldonado's regional colleague, Carmen García – as well as multiple members of the Chamber of Deputies.

Given his split with the MAS, Maldonado was not nominated for reelection in 2014 and forwent seeking a second term as part of a different front.

Starting in October 2014, he formally began the process of collecting the necessary signatures to acquire ballot access for his new party, Popular Power.

Rather than seek reelection, Maldonado attempted to contest the Potosí mayoralty in 2015 but was barred from running due to a controversial interpretation of residency requirements by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal.

Instead, he set his sights on local politics, looking to contest the Potosí mayoralty in the 2015 subnationals.

The decision prompted him to sue the government before the United Nations Human Rights Committee, which in 2018 ruled that his political rights had been violated by the state.

In subsequent years, Maldonado ran to return to parliament in 2019 and was again a candidate for mayor in 2021, failing to achieve either position.