postgraduate studies in history and anthropology at the Higher University of San Andrés, later receiving a diploma in indigenous rights from La Paz's Cordillera University in 2002. Peasant movement Starting in the 1980s, Choquehuanca became an active figure in the peasant labor movement, participating in various labor strikes and trade union congresses. Around this time, in 1984, Choquehuanca first crossed paths with cocalero activist Evo Morales during a peasant youth congress. "At the end [of the event], we did a march; the press... went directly to Evo Morales and not to us, the ones who had organized the meeting. [Morales] has 'something'", Choquehuanca later stated. Together with Morales, Choquehuanca was one of the signatories of the Apaña Manifesto, which outlined the proposal to found a "political instrument" aligned with the interests of the peasant movement and not the traditionally governing political parties—the basis of what later became the Movement for Socialism (MAS-IPSP). The culmination of this was the "500 Years of Resistance" campaign—spearheaded by Morales and Víctor Hugo Cárdenas—which rallied some seventy thousand indigenous peoples in a mass demonstration displaying the rising political power of the indigenist movement. Moving forward, between 1998 and 2005, Choquehuanca served as national coordinator of the Nina Program, an NGO dedicated to training and educating leaders of the indigenous peasant movement. During this time, he served as the appointed advisor to various indigenous organizations and peasant leaders, including Morales. As the nascent MAS began to gain a foothold in politics, Choquehuanca was suggested for a multitude of elective positions, even nearly accepting his party's nomination to run for mayor of El Alto. However, he ultimately turned down such opportunities, explaining to Morales in one meeting that "my head has accepted [your offer] because my head is colonized, but my heart does not accept because it is not colonized". As late as 2005, Choquehuanca was put forward as an Aymara candidate for Senate, an offer he again rejected, stating: "what am I going to do as a senator?". Minister of Foreign Affairs Following Morales' 2005 election to the presidency, Choquehuanca was appointed to serve as foreign minister in the new president's first cabinet. Morales' inclination toward entrusting Choquehuanca with the foreign affairs portfolio dated as far back as the late 1990s during a visit to Libya, where the future president said as much to the then-Libyan foreign minister. Choquehuanca, however, had not been as keen on