Centa Rek

In 2020, Rek returned from political retirement to once again run for senator, this time for the position of first senator for Santa Cruz on behalf of the Creemos political alliance. At age sixty-six, she was the oldest of the twelve candidates that made up the electoral lists of the top three contending parties.

On New Year's Day 2010, a few weeks before entering the Chamber of Senators, Rek participated in the foundation of New Civic Power, a regional civic group led by Santa Cruz Senator Germán Antelo and other elected deputies for the department. During her term, she was twice elected to head the opposition PPB caucus in the Senate: once in 2012 on an interim basis in replacement of Roger Pinto Molina and again in 2014 for the remaining duration of 2010–2015 Legislative Assembly.

While still studying in Argentina, at twenty-one years old, Rek married José Luís Durán, with whom she settled in Santa Cruz after graduating and had two children. However, the couple soon divorced due to Durán's wish that she not work. Later, she remarried and has one daughter with her second husband. Rek practiced her profession as a psychologist in various schools, mainly in partnership with the Faith and Joy schools. During this time, she participated in establishing the Santa Cruz College of Psychologists (CPSC). After some years, Rek moved away from her field of expertise to focus on education, briefly working as a school director, before venturing into television journalism. Together with another colleague, she hosted the show Rayos X which covered cultural, political, and social issues. The program ran for six years, after which she was brought on as the director of the newspaper La Estrella del Oriente, a position she held for four years between 2005 and 2009.

In the early 2000s, Rek was a harsh critic of then-president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada as well as the capitalist and neoliberal political system more generally. Her initial sympathies towards the Movement for Socialism (MAS-IPSP) led her to join the 2006–2007 Constituent Assembly as a collaborator with the Presidential Representation for the Constituent Assembly (REPAC). However, Rek later became a strong supporter of the Santa Cruz autonomist movement and was critical of what she viewed as the MAS' attempt to be "enthroned" in power indefinitely. Despite her lack of political experience, National Convergence (PPB-CN), the opposition alliance of Manfred Reyes Villa, added her to its electoral list as a candidate for second senator for Santa Cruz in the 2009 general elections.

Centa Lothy Rek López (born 29 August 1954) is a Bolivian politician, psychologist, and writer serving as senator for Santa Cruz since 2020. A member of Creemos, she previously served as senator for Santa Cruz from 2010 to 2015 on behalf of the National Convergence alliance.

Centa Rek was born on 29 August 1954 in San José de Chiquitos, Santa Cruz. She was the only biological child of her parents, who raised her with five foster siblings. Rek is of German descent; her paternal grandparents emigrated from Germany and settled in the Chiquitos Province to dedicate themselves to husbandry and agricultural work. This profession continues to be practiced by her family: her foster brothers, Erwin and Elmar, presided over the Federation of Ranchers of Santa Cruz (FEGASACRUZ ), and the former also administered Fexpocruz in 1996.