Choquehuanca's significant grassroots support led him to be promoted as a possible presidential successor to Morales, a concept that strained relations between himself and the president and culminated in his removal as minister in 2017, relegating him to diplomatic "exile" as secretary general of ALBA.

[11] In 1985, he returned to education, receiving a six-month scholarship to attend the Niceto Pérez Cadre Training School in Havana, Cuba, where he was instructed in philosophy and political economics.

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.

[14] Moving forward, between 1998 and 2005, Choquehuanca served as national coordinator of the Nina Program,[α] an NGO dedicated to training and educating leaders of the indigenous peasant movement.

[1][14] 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.

As foreign minister, Choquehuanca represented the "moderate Indianist current" in the Morales administration,[20] the faction of MAS supporters that "saw the government's main role as decolonizing Bolivian society".

Thanks in part to Choquehuanca's leadership, this group enjoyed the most international visibility, utilizing "idealized versions of Andean culture to project an indigenous image onto the government's ...

[22] As Choquehuanca's internal influence within the government grew, media outlets increasingly turned their attention to simmering tensions between the foreign minister and other sectors of the Morales administration, particularly those loyal to his vice president, García Linera.

Moreira was also removed, with the majority of Choquehuanca's remaining allies in the civil service being "swept away" within days of his departure, their positions instead occupied by individuals from the García Linera camp, which emerged as the winner of the longstanding dispute.

[24][27] Shortly after his dismissal, Choquehuanca was appointed to serve as secretary general of the Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA),[28] a position journalist Fernando Molina considered tantamount to being discreetly "exiled" to a secondary diplomatic post.

[30] With new elections scheduled for 2020 and Morales barred from participating,[30] Choquehuanca—whose service in Caracas was terminated by the interim government's withdrawal from ALBA—once again positioned himself as a viable contender to receive the MAS's nomination for the presidency.

Within a month of Morales' removal, the "Túpac Katari" Single Departmental Federation of Peasant Workers of La Paz called an emergency meeting in which representatives from the department's twenty provinces proclaimed Choquehuanca as their preferred presidential candidate.

[31][32] In January, the Pact of Unity—a coalition of MAS-aligned trade syndicates—ratified the federation's decision, declaring that Choquehuanca had been selected as their nominee, accompanied by cocalero activist Andrónico Rodríguez as his running mate.

[35] Likewise, the Bartolina Sisa Confederation and the Túpac Katari Federation both expressed "annoyance" at the lack of respect for their choices, pointing out that Choquehuanca had support from organizations based in seven of the nine departments.

[36] For his part, Choquehuanca opted not to challenge Arce's nomination and called on MAS-aligned sectors to accept Morales' decision, a plea that successfully quelled further infighting for the time being.