Template:POTD/2025-05-20
Appearance
Rhina Aguirre Amézaga (20 May 1939 – 30 October 2021) was a Bolivian disability activist, politician, and sociologist who served as senator for Tarija from 2010 to 2015. An opponent of the military dictatorships of the 1970s and '80s, Aguirre was an early activist in the country's human rights movement. Exiled to Ecuador by the García Meza regime, she collaborated with Leonidas Proaño's Indigenous Ministry and worked closely with the country's peasant and social organizations. Blinded in both eyes by toxoplasmosis, Aguirre took up the cause of disability rights, joining the Departmental Council for Disabled Persons upon her return to Bolivia. In 2009, she joined the Movement for Socialism and was elected to represent Tarija in the Senate, becoming the first blind person in Bolivian history to assume a parliamentary seat. This photograph shows Aguirre in 2014.Photograph credit: Chamber of Senators