Salvatierra pertains to a generation of conservative parliamentarians who entered the political arena in the heat of the conflicts of the late 2000s, agitating for regional autonomy for the eastern departments and pushing for the rejection of the new, progressive Constitution ratified during the first Evo Morales administration.

In the aftermath, Salvatierra was propelled to the presidency of the reconstituted Pando Civic Committee, remaining an ally of the department's jailed prefect, Leopoldo Fernández, for the duration of his political career.

He concluded his primary and secondary education in Cobija, graduating from the city's American Institute before enrolling in the University of Valle, where he studied law at the academy's campuses in Cochabamba and La Paz.

[3] During the ensuing state of emergency, Fernández was ousted from office and arrested, and the Pando Civic Committee was dismantled; its primary leaders—including the body's president, Ana Melena de Suzuki—sought asylum in Brazil.

[7] The former prefect remained regionally influential despite his incarceration, founding from prison the Integration Column (CI) civic group, of which many of Pando's opposition parliamentarians, including Salvatierra, became members.