Rodolfo Calle | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2014 | |
| Member of theChamber of Deputies fromLa Paz | |
| In office 19 January 2010 – 18 January 2015 | |
| Substitute | Maribel Vargas |
| Preceded by | Simón de la Barra |
| Succeeded by | Víctor Ramírez |
| Constituency | Party list |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Rodolfo Calle Inca (1964-09-23)23 September 1964 (age 61) La Paz, Bolivia |
| Party | Movement for Socialism |
| Occupation |
|
Rodolfo Calle Inca (born 23 September 1964) is a Bolivian small businessman, lawyer, and politician who served as aparty-list member of theChamber of Deputies fromLa Paz from 2010 to 2015.
Thesole proprietor of asmall enterprise, Calle gained prominence through organizational leadership amongthe capital'sleather goods vendors. He served as vice president and then president of the Departmental Federation of Micro and Small Enterprises of La Paz and wassecretary of minutes at theNational Confederation of Micro and Small Enterprises of Bolivia.
A member of theMovement for Socialism, Calle represented themicro-enterprise sector on the party'sparliamentary slate in the2009 election and won a seat for La Paz Department in the Chamber of Deputies. He served only a single term and declined to seek reelection. He ceded his seat toVíctor Ramírez, who had been his constituent's original nominee the previous election.
Rodolfo Calle was born on 23 September 1964 inLa Paz,[1] in a household of modest means involved in theleather goods business.[2] His mother, Bonifacia Inca, was ahomemaker andsmall trader who made and sold leather products – mostlypurses and the like. His father, Víctor Calle, served in theArmed Forces and died early during Rodolfo's childhood.[3]
Calle completed his primary andintermediate studies at the Holland and Félix Reyes Ortiz schools in La Paz and received hissecondary baccalaureate [es] from the city'sAdventist institute.[4] He studied law at theHigher University of San Andrés and the Bolivian Technological University,[5] but was forced to disenroll due to family matters[6] – although he would eventually return to complete the degree.[7] He also completed a diploma program in leadership atInternational IDEA.[5]
Calle was brought on as an assistant at his brother-in-law'shandbag factory at age 12 in 1976 andapprenticed there until he turned 17 in 1981.[4] He became thesole proprietor of his ownmanufacturing plant shortly thereafter. The businesswent under several times before he could accrue the capital to keep it afloat, but it eventually grew into a moderately sizedsmall enterprise.[6]
Around the turn of the century, Calle began to take part in theguilds andemployers' associations that make up themicro-enterprise sector. He became a figure of import among the city's leather goods merchants, serving as secretary of relations in the Union of Micro-entrepreneurs in Leather Goods between 2000 and 2002 before going on to found another organization, the Association of Micro-entrepreneurs in Leather Goods, which he led from 2006 to 2010.[8]
At thedepartment level, Calle served as vice president of the Departmental Federation of Micro and Small Enterprises of La Paz from 2003 to 2009.[2] He led the organization as its president during his term inparliament, circa 2010–2012,[9] and remained in leadership as a board member and secretary of relations in the years that followed.[5] Those posts propelled him to the national level, and he capped his career assecretary of minutes for theNational Confederation of Micro and Small Enterprises of Bolivia (CONAMYPE), an office he held from 2009 to 2011.[8]
Like many members of the country'ssmall merchant class, Calle sympathized with the policies of theMovement for Socialism (MAS) and became a member of the party early on.[5][α] Despite belonging to theprivate sector, merchants often teetered on the edge ofinformality, lived in precarious economic positions, and relied heavily onstate services.[11] Since the2005 election, the MAS had developed an ongoingalliance with the country's small employers' associations, who leveraged the support of theirbase for positions of power in government.[12]
This pact solidified with the admission of CONAMYPE as a member organization of the MAS in 2006 and continued through 2009,[13] when the party offered the micro-enterprise sector a quota of candidates on itsparliamentary lists.[2] In La Paz, the local federation initially electedVíctor Ramírez as its nominee, but procedural hurdles prevented him from running. In his stead, Calle – who had been the runner-up candidate – was given the nod to run.[14] He was included on the MAS party list in La Paz and was elected to represent the department in theChamber of Deputies.[8]
Assuming office on 19 January 2010,[15] Calle's legislative priorities centered on the needs of the micro-enterprise sector.[16] He collaborated with members of the national confederation to sponsor legislation in favor ofsmall and medium-sized enterprises; already in 2010, a draft bill aimed at properly defining the legal status of micro-enterprises and regulating theiraccess to markets was presented, to be developed in cooperation with local and small business federations.[17] The legislation was not taken up during Calle's term,[16] but a finalized rendition of the bill was enacted into law by PresidentEvo Morales in 2017.[18]
Calle contemplated remaining in politics beyond the end of his term but tempered expectations that he might seek reelection in 2014.[16] He went on to back the nomination of Ramírez – the president of CONAMYPE, who had been the sector's original pick the previous cycle – to fill his seat in the Chamber of Deputies.[19] Calle's term concluded on 18 January 2015,[20] and he resumed business activities at his factory.[2]
| Year | Office | Party | Votes | Result | Ref. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | % | P. | ||||||
| 2009 | Deputy | Movement for Socialism | 1,099,259 | 80.28% | 1st | Won | [24][β] | |
| Source:Plurinational Electoral Organ |Electoral Atlas | ||||||||
Online and list sources
Digital and print publications
Academic journals
Books and encyclopedias
| Chamber of Deputies of Bolivia | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theChamber of Deputies fromLa Paz 2010–2015 | Succeeded by |
