Upon his return to Bolivia, Galindo dedicated himself to entrepreneurial work in the private sector, holding executive positions at a variety of companies, including Intex and the Bolivian Center for Industrial Productivity.
[3] His father was a prominent member of Cochabamba civic society, whose influence rested on his participation in and financial support for public works and regional development projects across the city and surrounding department.
The Bolivian National Revolution that occurred just a year later and ensuing agrarian reform undermined much of that influence, with many members of the country's economic elite, including the Galindo family, seeking exile abroad.
[1][8] While in university, Galindo was also a member of the A&M Aggies Fencing Club Team[9][10][11] and additionally served in the Corps of Cadets,[1] with which he completed a short term of military service in Vietnam.
During this time, he also served as director of the Cochabamba Chamber of Industry and spent short stints managing limited companies, including the S.A.s Industrias Textiles and Inversiones Generales.
[3] A virulent anti-communist, by the tail end of the 1960s, Galindo had grown weary of what he viewed as "heavy communist presence" in Cochabamba and—as recounted by his brother, Ramiro—"[had] formed his own secret society ... to clandestinely offer public signs of displeasure."
Initially limited to discreet acts of protest such as small-scale vandalism and graffiti, Galindo's activism took a sharp turn towards the radical around the time of the death of René Barrientos and the rise of leftist general Juan José Torres to the presidency.
Together with a group of likeminded Brazilian emigres he had met in the entrepreneurial world, Galindo "pretty well abandoned [his] business and went almost full time into forming alliances with non-leftist Armed Forces officers and anti-communist militias.
Although Galindo's cell succeeded in taking major military and police installations in Cochabamba,[18] similar operations led by Edmundo Valencia in La Paz and Hugo Banzer in Santa Cruz were foiled, causing the plot to fall apart.
"[25] As the party's deputy leader, Galindo composed part of ADN's pro-business wing and, according to sociologist Salvador Romero, was integral in helping give it "an identity committed to the interests of the economic elite.
"[3] Indeed, throughout his tenure in leadership, Galindo became characterized by his "tough anti-union stance," pledging to "apply the law" against trade unions organizing general strikes and calling for the closure of state-run enterprises, such as the partly-worker-managed Bolivian Mining Corporation.
Galindo composed the core group of ADN leaders—including Banzer—who "rejected any collaboration," even as other prominent members were given "special permission" to take up ministerial posts within García Meza's cabinet.
[25] Those prospects dampened somewhat midway through the campaign, as Galindo faced controversy for allegedly falsifying his military service records, claiming to have received a libreta militar—a prerequisite for holding public office—despite having never served in the Bolivian Armed Forces.
Faced with a petition on the part of military high command to disqualify his candidacy, Galindo accused the Armed Forces of seeking to postpone the elections, even alleging that they were plotting a coup in conjunction with left-wing trade syndicates.
[13][36] Ultimately, the scandal over Galindo's military service failed to substantially damage Banzer's campaign, and the pair exited first on election day with an over thirty percent popular vote plurality.
[25] In a move unprecedented in Bolivian history at the time, Banzer and Galindo were denied control of the executive branch, as the opposition-led legislature instead selected runner-up Víctor Paz Estenssoro to hold the presidency.
[23] For Romero, Galindo's apparent reversal illustrated the MNR's "shift towards [neo]liberalism and enthusiasm for the elite" under the leadership of Paz Estenssoro's successor, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada.
Faced with the PDB's small partisan base, Galindo's campaign sought out the aid of other politicians who had been marginalized from their fronts, including them on his party's slate of parliamentary candidates.
The strategy failed to significantly drum up support for his candidacy, and he exited dead last on election day, taking less than a percent of the national popular vote, a margin too small even for his PDB to keep its registration as a political party.
Having previously dabbled in education as a founding member and the first director of the Higher University of San Simón's school of business administration,[42] he became more active in academia in his later years, publishing multiple political studies and historical works.