Beatriz Eliane Capobianco Sandoval (born 15 April 1973) is a Bolivian lawyer and politician who served as minister of rural development and lands from January to November 2020. A member of the

Social Democratic Movement The Social Democratic Movement ( es, Movimiento Demócrata Social; MDS), often shortened to just the Democrats ( es, Demócratas), is a centre-right political party in Bolivia founded in 2013 for the movement for greater autonomy for the eastern ...

, she previously served as a

party-list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can ...

member of the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

from Santa Cruz from 2015 to 2019 on behalf of the Democratic Unity coalition. Before that, she served as a member of the Constituent Assembly from Santa Cruz, representing circumscription 51 from 2006 to 2007 on behalf of the Social Democratic Power alliance. A professional in

cadastre A cadastre or cadaster is a comprehensive recording of the real estate or real property's metes and bounds, metes-and-bounds of a country.Jo Henssen, ''Basic Principles of the Main Cadastral Systems in the World,'/ref> Often it is represented gra ...

and land and real estate registration, Capobianco held numerous positions linked to Santa Cruz's agribusiness sector, including serving twice as departmental director of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform, first from 2001 to 2002 and again from 2019 to 2020.

Early life and career

Eliane Capobianco was born on 15 April 1973 in São Paulo, Brazil. She was raised by an eminently political family with an extensive history in private and public affairs. Her father, Jorge Capobianco, served as president of the Santa Cruz Development Corporation, while her mother, Beatriz Sandoval, was a magistrate and dean of the Supreme Court of Justice. Her uncle, Guillermo Capobianco, was a founding member of the Revolutionary Left Movement, serving as minister of the interior in the administration of Jaime Paz Zamora. Capobianco studied law at Gabriel René Moreno Autonomous University, graduating with a degree in

legal science Legal science is one of the main components in civil law tradition (after Roman law, canon law, commercial law, and the legacy of the revolutionary period). Legal science is primarily the creation of German legal scholars of the middle and late ...

s. She later undertook postgraduate studies in Denmark, attaining a master's degree in

and land and real estate registration. Her expertise in

agrarian law Agrarian laws (from the Latin ''ager'', meaning "land") were laws among the Romans regulating the division of the public lands, or ''ager publicus''. In its broader definition, it can also refer to the agricultural laws relating to peasants and hu ...

led her to work as a university professor, teaching students at the Simón Bolívar Andean University and the Aquino University of Bolivia. Throughout her career, Capobianco held key positions related to Santa Cruz's agribusiness sector. She worked as an advisor for the National Association of Oilseed Producers and the Federation of Ranchers of Santa Cruz, two of the most powerful

agroindustrial AgroindustrialEvo Morales, whose land reform policies stood against the interests of the department's major landowners.

Constituent Assembly

Capobianco entered the political scene in 2006, participating in that year's Constituent Assembly elections as a candidate in circumscription 51, encompassing a portion of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, an opposition stronghold. Her candidacy was facilitated through the Social Democratic Power alliance, which sought to fill its ranks with political outsiders—typically young professionals with minimal previous party experience—as a means of challenging the rising primacy of the

Movement for Socialism The Movement for Socialism–Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples ( es, Movimiento al Socialismo–Instrumento Político por la Soberanía de los Pueblos, abbreviated MAS-IPSP, or simply MAS, punning on ''más'', Spanish for ...

(MAS-IPSP). The jump from the private to public spheres was a common step amongst Cruceños in the business sector, reflecting the propensity of the department's agribusiness elites to occupy positions in public administration that granted them influence over land reform policy. Throughout her term, Capobianco served on the Land-Territory Subcommission, charged with drafting and debating articles precisely related to matters of agrarian and land reform.

Chamber of Deputies

Election

Following her stint in the Constituent Assembly, Capobianco returned to Santa Cruz, where Governor

Rubén Costas Rubén Armando Costas Aguilera (born 6 October 1955) is a Bolivian politician and the prefect and then governor of Santa Cruz Department in Bolivia from 2006 to 2021, and also the leader of the Democrat Social Movement (MDS). Early life and ...

appointed her to serve as director of regional development. During this time, she became a component of the nascent

(MDS), a party that united regional opposition leaders into a single anti-MAS front. In the 2014 general elections, the MDS aligned itself with the National Unity Front, granting it control over the coalition's legislative ticket in Beni and Santa Cruz. As part of its strategy of nominating ex-legislators and political professionals to fill its

electoral list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can ...

, the MDS selected Capobianco to serve as a

member of the

Tenure

As with in the Constituent Assembly, Capobianco's term in the legislature focused its efforts on constructing policy relating to land distribution; she worked in the Territorial Organization of the State and Autonomies Commission and was a member of the Departmental Autonomies Committee. Upon the conclusion of her term, she sought reelection, topping the Bolivia Says No (BDN) alliance's electoral list in Santa Cruz. Capobianco did not retain her seat, owing to the electoral disaster BDN experienced in the

2019 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2019. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems has a calendar of upcoming elections around the world, and the National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections in coun ...

, cushioned only by the later annulment of the results due to allegations of

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

. Following the election, Capobianco made a brief return to Santa Cruz as the newly-appointed departmental director of INRA, reassuming the position after seventeen years.

Commission assignments

* Territorial Organization of the State and Autonomies Commission ** Departmental Autonomies Committee (–, –) ** Municipal and Regional Autonomies Committee (–) * Human Rights Commission ** Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Committee (–)

Minister of Rural Development

Capobianco's brief return to the direction of INRA lasted just over two months; by late January 2020, she was profiled as a potential pick for a ministerial role in the Cabinet of Jeanine Áñez. Áñez and Capobianco's shared relationship extended to their time as delegates to the Constituent Assembly, continuing through the 2015–2020 legislature, where the former served as a senator while the latter was in the Chamber of Deputies. Capobianco's entry into the Áñez administration was formalized on 28 January, with her appointment as head of the

Ministry of Rural Development and Lands The Ministry of Rural Development and Lands is a Bolivian government ministry in charge of rural development. The current minister is Edwin Ronald Characayo. The Ministry has three two child agencies: Agricultural Development and Coca and Integr ...

. A proponent of biotechnology, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Capobianco sought to open the country to the use of genetically modified agricultural products as a means of generating greater crop yields. In May, the government granted authorization to the National Biosafety Committee to conduct an exhaustive evaluation on the use of genetically modified forms of corn, cotton, soybeans, sugarcane, and wheat. Speaking to ''

El Deber ''El Deber'' is a newspaper published in Santa Cruz de la Sierra Santa Cruz de la Sierra (; "Holy Cross of the Mountain Range"), commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the largest city in Bolivia and the capital of the Santa Cruz department. Situa ...

'', the minister stated that the use of

transgenics A genetically modified organism (GMO) is any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. The exact definition of a genetically modified organism and what constitutes genetic engineering varies, with ...

was essential to keep Bolivian producers competitive in the international market. Other means of reactivating the agricultural sector were outlined in June when the government presented its economic plan. According to Capobianco, the program—set to last between six months and two years—sought to guarantee food security for the Bolivian population, boost the economy, generate production and trade, and support

family farm A family farm is generally understood to be a farm owned and/or operated by a family; it is sometimes considered to be an Estate (land), estate passed down by inheritance. Although a recurring conceptual model, conceptual and archetype, archet ...

ing, medium-scale agriculture, and agro-industrial export agriculture.

Electoral history

References

Notes

Footnotes

Bibliography

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External links

Constituent profile
Constituent Assembly . Archived fro
the original
on 9 November 2007.
Parliamentary profile
Office of the Vice President .
Parliamentary profile

. Archived fro
the original
on 15 September 2018. {{DEFAULTSORT:Capobianco, Eliane 1973 births Living people 20th-century Bolivian lawyers 21st-century Bolivian lawyers 21st-century Bolivian politicians 21st-century Bolivian women politicians Agriculture ministers of Bolivia Áñez administration cabinet members Áñez administration personnel Bolivian educators Bolivian women educators Bolivian women lawyers Gabriel René Moreno Autonomous University alumni Members of the Bolivian Chamber of Deputies from Santa Cruz Members of the Bolivian Constituent Assembly People from Santa Cruz de la Sierra Politicians from São Paulo Quiroga administration personnel Social Democratic Movement politicians Social Democratic Power politicians Women government ministers of Bolivia Women members of the Chamber of Deputies (Bolivia) 20th-century women lawyers 21st-century women lawyers