A critic of the
extractivist policies of President
Evo Morales, in
2019, Requena ran for a seat in the Senate as part of the opposition
Civic Community's all-female roster of senatorial candidates. Following
the annulment of those results, Requena was re-nominated for the
2020 general election and won the seat, becoming the first opposition senator to represent La Paz in over a decade. Requena's tenure focused its work on
environmental policy, particularly calling out the continued support for extractive industries under Morales's successor,
Luis Arce.
An avid
environmentalist from a young age,[4] Requena served on the directorate of the Bolivian Association for the Defense of Nature between 1992 and 1993, first as coordinator for communication, lobbying, and public awareness and later as the organization's executive secretary. In 1995, she was brought on as a consultant for the
Ministry of Sustainable Development and Environment, where she also served as coordinator for communication within the ministry's National Directorate for the Conservation of Biodiversity.[5]
During the presidency of
Evo Morales, Requena established herself as a vocal critic of the administration's support for and expansion of
extractive industries. "The government of Evo Morales, which presents itself internationally as a defender of
Mother Earth, will remain in Bolivian history as the regime that promoted radical and devastating extractivism," she stated.[10] Requena attributed these faults to Morales's allegedly anti-democratic practices, stating: "where there is no democracy, it is even more difficult to defend nature."[4] She became increasingly politically active following the abolishment of
presidential term limits, joining more than 180 other prominent intellectuals in penning a roadmap for the country's transition from an "authoritarian and corporate" state towards a more democratic one.[11]
In the leadup to the 2019 general election, Requena participated in the formation of the
Civic Community (CC) alliance, which promoted the presidential candidacy of
Carlos Mesa.[4] Among the primary pillars of CC's
political platform were democracy0 and
environmentalism but also
feminism and
women's rights,[12] a fact that led the alliance to nominate an all-female
slate of senatorial candidates.[13] Requena was selected to represent the
La Paz Department in the
Senate,[14][15] a choice potentially brought about at the suggestion of her spouse, José Antonio Quiroga, CC's then-campaign coordinator.[16][17]
A few days after the election date, Requena was projected as one of La Paz's winning senatorial candidates, alongside three from the ruling
Movement for Socialism (MAS-IPSP).[18] As a result of the annulment of the 2019 results, Requena was prevented from being seated but was re-nominated to contest the 2020 election,[19] where she repeated the previous year's victory.[20] In being elected, Requena became the first non-ruling party candidate to win a Senate seat in La Paz
since 2005,[21] bucking the trend of
2009 and
2014, when the MAS swept all four of the department's Senate seats.[22][23] She is thus the first opposition senator to represent La Paz in the
Plurinational Legislative Assembly; the last, Luis Vásquez Villamor, served in the now-defunct National Congress.[21][24]
Tenure
Once in office, Requena dedicated much of her senatorial term to environmental causes, as she had done throughout her career. Given her minority caucus's limited ability to craft and pass legislation, much of this work revolved around her powers of parliamentary oversight.[4] As a member and chair of the Senate's various environmental committees, Requena oversaw multiple investigations into the government's pro-extraction policy, especially
corruption in the Mining Administrative Jurisdictional Authority, the state-run mining activity supervisor.[25]
In particular, Requena sought to highlight the lack of action against
illegal mining in
protected areas such as La Paz's
Madidi National Park, one of the most
biodiverse areas in the world.[26][27] She attributed this lack of enforcement to the government's acquiescence before politically powerful
mining cooperatives, whom she accused of promoting "terror and violence" against those who investigate illegal activity.[28][29] In one instance, Requena herself was attacked with
firecrackers and
dynamite while conducting an in-person inspection of the park.[30] In mid-2022, she and other CC legislators presented an actio popularis against mining activities that damage the environment in Madidi.[31] The appeal was largely accepted by a court in La Paz later that year, which ruled that legislative and executive authorities should pass new legislation regulating the use of
mercury in
gold mining, given the immense
pollution and
environmental damage it causes.[32]
Commission assignments
Land and Territory, Natural Resources, and the Environment Commission (President; 2021–2022)[33]
Requena, Cecilia (1999). "Percepciones Bolivianas de la Integración Andina". In Barrios, Raúl (ed.). Comunidad Andina de Naciones: Retos Politicos y Percepciones Ciudadanas (in Spanish).
Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung-Instituto Latinoamericano de Investigaciones Sociales.