Alejandro Vilca | |
|---|---|
 | |
| National Deputy | |
| Assumed office 10 December 2021 | |
| Constituency | Jujuy |
| Provincial Legislator of Jujuy | |
| In office 10 December 2017 – 9 December 2021 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1976-07-05)5 July 1976 (age 49) San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina |
| Political party | Socialist Workers' Party |
| Other political affiliations | Workers' Left Front – Unity(2011–present) |
Alejandro Ariel Vilca (born 5 July 1976) is an Argentine activist,garbage worker, trade unionist and politician, active in theSocialist Workers' Party (PTS). A member of the IndigenousQulla people, Vilca was elected to theprovincial legislature ofJujuy Province in2017 on theWorkers' Left Front (FIT) list, which won 18% of the vote. In2021, he was elected to theNational Chamber of Deputies.
Vilca was born on 5 July 1976 inSan Salvador de Jujuy, the capital ofJujuy Province. His family belongs to theQulla people, one of the many indigenous peoples who inhabit the Argentine Northwest.[1] Alongside his four siblings, he was raised by a single mother who worked as a domestic maid and janitor at the city's private hospital. Vilca grew up in the San Isidro neighbourhood. Upon finishing high school, he moved toSan Juan to study architecture at theNational University of San Juan (UNSJ); he worked odd jobs as a mason, a waiter, and an ice cream vendor to sustain himself while he studied.[2] In the UNSJ he joined En Clave Roja, theSocialist Workers' Party (PTS) student wing which was then in opposition to the education reform of presidentCarlos Menem.[3]
From 1996, Vilca became an active member of the PTS, regularly attending protests andpicketing organised by the unemployed, teachers and state workers of San Juan. He was forced to drop out of university and return to Jujuy due to economic hardships, and upon his return, he began organising the PTS in his home province. Vilca sought to share the anti-capitalist and socialist ideals he had forged during his time in university.[4]
Vilca became an employee at the San Salvador municipal government. In 2006, he led a protest alongside the Coordinadora Provincial de Trabajadores en Negro (a provincial trade union forinformal sector workers), which grouped teachers and health workers, among other state workers, seeking higher wages and better work conditions. Following that, Vilca and another major activists involved in the protests were transferred to garbage collecting at the Alto Comedero neighbourhood. The protests would eventually pay off, however, as many of those workers were given contracts by the municipal government as they had requested.[5]
Ahead of the2011 general election, a number oftrotskyist political parties, including the PTS, formed theWorkers' Left Front to contest the election. Vilca was nominated as the alliance's candidate forgovernor of Jujuy: he received 1.93% of the vote. Four years later, in2015, Vilca was the first candidate in the FIT list to the provincial legislature. He received 7.06% of the vote, nearly enough to be elected.[6]
Ahead of the2017 legislative election, Vilca was nominated as the first candidate in the FIT list to both the National Chamber of Deputies and theLegislature of Jujuy. Following a largely successful campaign,[7] he received 17.74% of the vote in the general election, placing third overall – still not enough for him to be elected to the National Congress, but more than enough to elect Vilca to the provincial legislature alongside three other FIT candidates.[8] He was sworn in as deputy on 4 December 2017.[9]
In the2021 legislative election, Vilca once again ran for a seat in the National Chamber of Deputies on the FIT list. Both in the primary elections and in the general election, Vilca's list received over 23% of the vote, less than 1% away from theFrente de Todos list. It was the best result the FIT had ever seen in a provincial election.[10] Vilca was elected, and he was sworn in as deputy on 7 December 2021.[11]
In May 2023 he won 13% of the vote in the election for governor of Jujuy province.[12]
| Election | Office | List | Votes | Result | Ref. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | % | P. | ||||||
| 2011 | Governor of Jujuy | Workers' Left Front | 5,705 | 1.93% | 5th | Not elected | [13] | |
| Election | Office | List | # | District | Votes | Result | Ref. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | % | P. | ||||||||
| 2015 | Provincial Legislator | Workers' Left Front | 1 | Jujuy Province | 24,199 | 7.06% | 3rd[a] | Not elected | [14] | |
| 2017 | Workers' Left Front | 1 | Jujuy Province | 59,251 | 15.86% | 3rd[a] | Elected | [15] | ||
| 2021 | National Deputy | Workers' Left Front | 1 | Jujuy Province | 63.512 | 17.74% | 3rd[a] | Elected | [16] | |