Miguel Ángel Feeney

Miguel Ángel Feeney Parada (born 31 May 1961) is a Bolivian businessman, lawyer, and politician who served as a party-list member of the Chamber of Deputies from Santa Cruz from 2015 to 2020. As with many members of Santa Cruz's upper-class economic elite, Feeney's career began in the department's agribusiness sector before moving on to public service. Originally a partisan of Nationalist Democratic Action, Feeney switched allegiances to the National Unity Front in the mid-2000s, serving as the party's departmental leader for Santa Cruz. In 2006 and 2009, respectively, he unsuccessfully sought to be elected to the Constituent Assembly and the Chamber of Deputies before finally attaining the post of deputy in the 2014 election.

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Feeney and the second or maternal family name is Parada.

Miguel Ángel Feeney
Headshot of Miguel Ángel Feeney
Official portrait, 2017
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
from Santa Cruz
In office
18 January 2015 – 3 November 2020
SubstituteIvonne Aireyu
Preceded byEdgar Fernández
Succeeded byAnyelo Céspedes
ConstituencyParty list
Personal details
Born
Miguel Ángel Feeney Parada

(1961-05-31) 31 May 1961
Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia
Political partyNational Unity Front
Other political
affiliations		Nationalist Democratic Action
Alma materGabriel René Moreno University
Occupation
  • Businessman
  • lawyer
  • politician
SignatureCursive signature in ink

Early life and career

Miguel Ángel Feeney was born on 31 May 1961 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. He attended the city's Marist School, later studying at Gabriel René Moreno University, where he graduated as a lawyer.[1] Feeney followed a career path typical of Santa Cruz's upper-class agro-industrial economic elite, typified by an early presence through leadership positions in the department's most relevant agribusiness associations, followed by a shift to public service and government administration.[2] On the business end, Feeney held the post of general manager of the Bolivian-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and was a board member of the Federation of Private Entrepreneurs of Santa Cruz.[1]

Political career

Feeney's entry into public administration was facilitated through Nationalist Democratic Action (ADN), a conservative party closely linked to Santa Cruz's agribusiness elites.[3] Feeney entered, first, as the administrative and legal director of the Santa Cruz Mayor's Office before then being promoted to the prefecture, where he also headed the administration's legal department.[1][4] Later, he was appointed to serve as departmental counselor for the Ibáñez Province, representing one of the area's municipalities in the prefecture.[5]

The early 2000s saw a steep decline in public support for ADN as a political force, brought about by the controversial presidency of Hugo Banzer and exacerbated by the collapse of the traditional party system in 2003, which affected all the neoliberal parties in power to that point. By 2004, many of ADN's leading cadres had opted to "abandon ship", joining new fronts or forming their own ones.[6] Feeney was among those who stayed on longer than most,[7] though even he eventually broke off shortly after ADN's ninth-place showing in the 2004 municipal elections.[8] He switched allegiances to the National Unity Front (UN), a fairly young party led by businessman Samuel Doria Medina.[1][9]

Together with UN, Feeney faced his first electoral contest in 2006 when he sought to represent Santa Cruz's circumscription 52 in the Constituent Assembly. His campaign failed to gain significant traction, and he was left sidelined at just three percent of the popular vote,[1] reflecting the difficulties UN faced in forming a strong partisan base in the eastern departments. Undeterred, Feeney continued to operate within the party, serving as its departmental leader for Santa Cruz.[10]

Chamber of Deputies

Election
Further information: 2009 Bolivian general election and 2014 Bolivian general election

In 2009, Feeney returned to the electoral arena, this time seeking a seat in the Chamber of Deputies on UN's electoral list. However, due to the party's pact with Popular Consensus (CP), two of the latter's partisans were granted preferential positions, pushing Feeney down to the third slot on the alliance's parliamentary list. UN-CP's poor performance in Santa Cruz—attaining just four percent of the vote—garnered it only one deputy, precluding Feeney from entering the legislature.[10]

Five years later, Feeney once again contested a seat in the Chamber of Deputies, this time as part of the Democratic Unity (UD) alliance, formed between UN and the Social Democratic Movement (MDS). Although the latter's larger presence in Santa Cruz gave it greater sway over the alliance's parliamentary list in that department, Feeney managed to be included, garnering him a seat in the low chamber.[1][11]

Tenure

With declared assets amounting to Bs 8,596,000, Feeney entered parliament as the wealthiest member of UD's parliamentary caucus and the second wealthiest in the entire lower chamber.[12] He spent his first year holding a seat on the lower chamber's Democracy Committee before being promoted to the second vice presidency of the Chamber of Deputies' Directorate in 2016. After that, Feeney closed out his final three years holding positions on the Social Policy Commission, spending two years on the Labor Committee and one on the Social Welfare Committee.[13] Upon the conclusion of his term, Feeney was not nominated for reelection, a product of UN's decision not to compete in the 2019 general elections.[14]

Commission assignments
  • Chamber of Deputies Directorate (Second Vice President: 2016–2017)[15]
  • Constitution, Legislation, and Electoral System Commission
    • Democracy and Electoral System Committee (2015–2016)[16]
  • Social Policy Commission
    • Labor and Employment Law Committee (2017–2019)[17][18]
    • Social Welfare and Protection Committee (2019–2020)[19]

Electoral history
Electoral history of Miguel Ángel Feeney
Year Office Party Alliance Votes Result Ref.
Total  % P.
2006 Constituent National Unity Front None 2,857 3.79% 7th Lost [20]
2009 Deputy National Unity Front Consensus and National Unity 46,451 4.30% 3rd Lost [21][lower-greek 1]
2014 National Unity Front Democratic Unity 506,704 39.82% 2nd Won [22][lower-greek 1]
Source: Plurinational Electoral Organ | Electoral Atlas

References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Miguel Ángel Feeney.

Notes
  1. Presented on an electoral list. The data shown represents the share of the vote the entire party/alliance received in that constituency.

Footnotes
  1. Romero Ballivián 2018, p. 213.
  2. Romero Ballivián 2018, pp. 315, 573.
  3. Romero Ballivián 2018, p. 47.
  4. "Pocas cara nuevas: Prefecto posesionó a la 'plana mayor' de su estructura interna Santa Cruz". Agencia de Noticias Fides (in Spanish). La Paz. 5 January 1999. Archived from the original on 1 November 2022. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  5. "Para consejero departamental presupuesto de Santa Cruz es magro y nefasto". Agencia de Noticias Fides (in Spanish). La Paz. 26 March 2003. Archived from the original on 1 November 2022. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  6. Coca Suárez Arana 2014, pp. 13–14.
  7. "Abuchean a 'Tuto' Quiroga en concentración adenista". Agencia de Noticias Fides (in Spanish). La Paz. 29 September 2004. Archived from the original on 1 November 2022. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  8. Coca Suárez Arana 2014, p. 14.
  9. Coca Suárez Arana 2014, p. 20.
  10. Coca Suárez Arana 2014, pp. 22–23.
  11. Vacaflor, Nancy (28 June 2014). "Opositores alistan renuncias para candidatear en elecciones". Página Siete (in Spanish). La Paz. Archived from the original on 2 February 2022. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  12. "Declaraciones juradas: los 5 diputados más 'ricos' poseen, por separado, 5 millones y medio de dólares". Agencia de Noticias Fides (in Spanish). La Paz. 17 March 2015. Archived from the original on 25 April 2015. Retrieved 2 November 2022 – via eju!.
  13. For citations, see § Commission assignments.
  14. "Doria Medina rompe con Demócratas y UN se retira de la carrera electoral". El Deber (in Spanish). Santa Cruz de la Sierra. 28 November 2018. Archived from the original on 7 July 2022. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
  15. Chamber of Deputies [@Diputados_Bol] (21 January 2016). "La Cámara de Diputados conformó su Directiva: Gestión Legislativa 2016–2017" (Tweet) (in Spanish). La Paz. Archived from the original on 25 February 2023. Retrieved 25 February 2023 – via Twitter.
  16. "La Cámara de Diputados conformó sus 12 Comisiones y 37 Comités: Gestión Legislativa 2015–2016". diputados.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Chamber of Deputies. 29 January 2015. Archived from the original on 17 July 2015. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  17. Chamber of Deputies [@Diputados_Bol] (31 January 2017). "La Cámara de Diputados conformó sus 12 Comisiones y 37 Comités: Gestión Legislativa 2017–2018" (Tweet) (in Spanish). La Paz. Archived from the original on 23 November 2022. Retrieved 22 November 2022 – via Twitter.
  18. "La Cámara de Diputados conformó sus 12 Comisiones y 37 Comités: Gestión Legislativa 2018–2019". diputados.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Chamber of Deputies. 1 February 2018. Archived from the original on 14 February 2018. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  19. "La Cámara de Diputados conformó sus 12 Comisiones y 37 Comités: Gestión Legislativa 2019–2020". diptuados.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Chamber of Deputies. 24 January 2019. Archived from the original on 28 January 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  20. "Elecciones Constituyentes 2006 | Atlas Electoral". atlaselectoral.oep.org.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Plurinational Electoral Organ. Retrieved 5 June 2022.
  21. "Elecciones Generales 2009 | Atlas Electoral". atlaselectoral.oep.org.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Plurinational Electoral Organ. Retrieved 5 June 2022.
  22. "Elecciones Generales 2014 | Atlas Electoral". atlaselectoral.oep.org.bo (in Spanish). La Paz: Plurinational Electoral Organ. Retrieved 5 June 2022.

Bibliography
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