[1] A communist student activist in his youth and leader of a failed Maoist insurgency in the 1970s, Zamora Medinaceli went on to become a senator, minister, mayor, ambassador and prefect.
His followers founded the pro-Chinese Communist Party of Bolivia (Marxist-Leninist) (PCB(ML)) in 1965, in which Zamora Medinaceli was the main leader.
[3][4][5] Zamora Medinaceli had been part of the CODEP delegation (which also included Guillermo Lora and Lidia Gueiler Tejada) to the Latin American Solidarity Organization in Havana in January 1966, but which was expelled from Cuba.
[6] Zamora Medinaceli is harshly criticized by Fidel Castro in his preface to Guevara's Bolivian Diaries.
[3][4][5] The refusal of Zamora Medinaceli to support Guevara's initiative in 1967 remained a bone of contention between Maoists and Guevarists in Latin America for several years to come.
[8][9] Under the code-name 'Comandante Rolando' he led the irregular rebel group Poor Peasants Union (UCAPO), which began militant actions in the Santa Cruz region in 1970.
[12][13] In response to the failures of the UCAPO rebellion, Zamora Medinaceli later declared himself to be a 'social democrat' and a supporter of parliamentarism.
Zamora Medinaceli's candidature did raise some eyebrows, not the least since it was under Banzer's command that he had gotten deported from the country during the UCAPO rebellion.
[13] Zamora Medinaceli was candidate for mayor of Tarija in the 1999 municipal elections, and finished in third place with 16.64% of the votes.
[15] Zamora Medinaceli was appointed Bolivian ambassador to China, but renounced his position in order to return to political life in Bolivia and stand as a candidate in the 2002 elections.