Yerko Núñez

Yerko Núñez was born on 17 April 1973 in Rurrenabaque, Bolivia. He is the son of Antonio Núñez Gamarra and Carmen Negrette Arce who were teachers. He was a member of an upper-middle-class family linked to politics and closely affiliated with the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR). His father, Antonio Núñez Gamarra, and his grandfather were recognized MNR mayors of Rurrenabaque.

Throughout the 1990s, Núñez participated in various training courses abroad in the United States, Germany, Colombia, and Peru.[5] Núñez served as National Director of Popular Participation in 2003 and worked for a time as a public official in the position of technical secretary of the Chamber of Senators in 2004.[5] From 2007 to 2012, he served as President of the Board of Directors of the Association of Municipalities of Beni. During this period, he also held the position of Secretary of the Beni Autonomous Council.[6]

Yerko Núñez entered began his political career at age 26. In 1999, he ran as a candidate for Mayor of Rurrenabaque in that year's municipal elections on behalf of the MNR. He won with 27.8% of the electorate. He was the youngest mayor in Bolivia at the time. He held the post of mayor from 2000 to 2003.[7]

In 2004, he ran for a nonconsecutive term, again representing the MNR. He won with 35% of the votes. In 2010, he ran for reelection as part of the Beni First (PB) political group, then led by Ernesto Suárez Sattori. He won with 44% of the popular vote, the highest out of his three mayoral bids, and allowing him to stay in office until 2015.[7]

Núñez ran for Senator for the Beni Department on behalf of the Democratic Unity (UD) political alliance along with Jeanine Áñez who was seeking her re-election in the 2014 general elections. Both Núñez and Áñez won. As a Senator in 2016, he held the position of second vice president of the Senate and was a member of various commissions.[8][9][10]