Óscar Salas Moya (August 5, 1936 in

Oruro Oruro (Hispanicized spelling) or Uru Uru is a city in Bolivia with a population of 264,683 (2012 calculation), about halfway between La Paz and Sucre in the Altiplano, approximately above sea level. It is Bolivia's fifth-largest city by populat ...

– February 23, 2017) was a

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

n politician and

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

ist. A miner by profession, Salas Moya was a key leader of the

Communist Party of Bolivia The Communist Party of Bolivia () is a communist party in Bolivia. It was founded in 1950 by Raúl Ruiz González and other former members of the Revolutionary Left Party (PIR). It remained small and did not hold its first national party congr ...

and a leader of the

Huanuni Huanuni is a town in the department of Oruro, Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, ...

miners union. The position of Salas Moya, then belonging to a younger generation in the party leadership, was strengthened in 1964, after the party had been deserted by Pimentel and Escóbar. Salas Moya became a parliamentarian in 1979 and 1980–1985. In 1985 he was the vice-presidential candidate of the United People's Front (whose presidential candidate was Antonio Araníbar Quiroga). The Araníbar-Salas candidature obtained 38,124 votes (2.84% of the national vote). In 1991 he broke with the Communist Party and founded a new party, the Democratic Socialist Alternative (ASD). Salas Moya became the first president of the new party. In 1992 Salas Moya was elected as the Executive Secretary of the main

centre in the country, '' Central Obrera Boliviana'' (COB), at its ninth congress. Salas Moya's candidature was supported a coalition of various moderate elements and opposed by the militant miners' union (who walked out in protest after the election). As the leader of COB, he was also the president of the Andean Consultative Labour Council 1993–1995. Salas Moya served as COB Executive Secretary until 1996.''Directorio: 1997 - 2002''. La Paz: Centro de Investigación del Congreso Nacional (CICON), 2002. p. 169 In 1997 he returned to parliament, elected to the Chamber of Deputies from Oruro through proportional representation on a Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) list. Salas Moya was the sole ASD parliamentarian. His alternate in the parliament was Franz Delgado Koriyama. He died on February 23, 2017, at the age of 84.

References

1936 births 2017 deaths Bolivian miners Bolivian trade union leaders Communist Party of Bolivia politicians Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Bolivia) People from Oruro, Bolivia Executive secretaries of the Bolivian Workers' Center {{Mining-bio-stub