Guillermo Torrez

Osvaldo Guillermo Torrez Arisaca (born 24 June 1973) is a Bolivian community organizer and politician who served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies from La Paz, representing circumscription 11 from 2010 to 2015.

Torrez was born in La Paz and operated an auto repair shop in his youth. He became involved in community organizing and held ranking positions in the city's micro-enterprise cooperatives. A member of the Movement for Socialism, Torrez assumed leadership posts within the party apparatus. In 2009, he ran for and won a seat in parliament, representing an urban constituency in the capital city. He was not nominated for reelection.

Early life and education
Guillermo Torrez was born on 24 June 1973, the youngest of three siblings born to Luciano Torrez Choque and Eusebia Arisaca. Torrez's family occupied a small adobe dwelling in the El Tejara barrio of northwestern La Paz along the border with El Alto, one of the most impoverished areas of the city.

Torrez attended local institutes for most of his primary and secondary education and received his Bachillerato after migrating to Santa Cruz, from the 24 de Septiembre School, where he took night courses. Though he never pursued formal university education, Torrez did attend trade schools; he took courses at INFOCAL and graduated as an industrial welder from the Santa Cruz Technological Institute.

Career and community organizing
Torrez operated a small auto repair shop in Santa Cruz de la Sierra for some time. On his return to La Paz, he became engaged in community-building activities and ventured into organizational leadership in the city's micro-enterprise cooperatives: he served as secretary of sports for his local neighborhood council in 2001 and held ranking positions in the Departmental Federation of Micro and Small Enterprises around 2005.

Longtime support for left-wing principles accompanied Torrez's activist and organizational activities. As early as 2002, he was active in a small Che Guevara-inspired cell affiliated with the fledgling Movement for Socialism (MAS-IPSP). Torrez held leadership positions in the MAS's zonal and district committees between 2002 and 2004 and was a member of its departmental committee in 2005.

Election
Torrez ran for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies in 2009. He narrowly won the nomination of a MAS-affiliated social movement organization to be a candidate in the general election. The district he contested, single-member circumscription 11, encompassed La Paz's western slope, including large parts of its commercial zone. Torrez won the race in a landslide, defeating several candidates he believed to be more professionally qualified.

Tenure
Entering office, Torrez was made a member of the Health, Sports, and Recreation Committee, which he chaired for the near-duration of his term – excepting one year on the International Economic Relations Committee in 2011.[§] At the end of his term, Torrez was not nominated for reelection.

Commission assignments

 * Education and Health Commission
 * Health, Sports, and Recreation Committee (Secretary: 2010–2011, 2012–2015)
 * International Relations and Migrant Protection Commission
 * International Economic Relations Committee (2011–2012)