Lucio Gutiérrez

Lucio Edwin Gutiérrez Borbúa (born 23 March 1957 in Quito) served as 43rd President of Ecuador from 15 January 2003 to 20 April 2005.

Lucio Gutierrez, in full Lucio Edwin Gutiérrez Borbua, (born 23 March 1957, Quito, Ecuador), Ecuadoran army colonel and politician who served as president of Ecuador (2003–05).

Gutiérrez was raised in Tena, an Amazon basin town.

He was the son of a traveling salesman and attended primary and secondary school in Tena before transferring at age 15 to a military college in Quito.

Gutiérrez graduated from the Army Polytechnic School as a civil engineer after having won honor's for academic and athletic prowess.

He later studied in Brazil and the United States.

Gutiérrez rose steadily through the army ranks.

Gutierrez was born on 23 March 1957, in the city of Quito.

Although holding degrees in civil engineering, administration and physical education, he chose a career with the Ecuadorian army, where he rose to the rank of colonel before his involvement in a coup against the government.

In 1990–92 he served with the United Nations observer mission to Nicaragua.

As a young man, he demonstrated little interest in politics, but during the 1990s he sympathized with fellow Ecuadorans as they became increasingly disenchanted with corruption and poverty.

In 1997, as aide-de-camp to Pres.

Abdalá Bucaram Ortiz, he refused an order to use force against a crowd outside the presidential palace.

Bucaram fled the palace and was later removed from office by the National Congress.

He claimed that, during the demonstrations that unseated Bucaram in February 1997, he also disobeyed orders to protect Carondelet Palace, leaving Bucaram no other choice but to leave.

In 1999 Gutiérrez repeatedly questioned the government's conduct and pointedly refused to shake Pres.

Jamil Mahuad Witt's hand during a public ceremony in December.

In January 2000, thousands of Ecuadorians of Andean Indian descent massed in the capital of Quito to protest corruption in the government and economic policy.

Ordered to break up demonstrations, Gutierrez instead helped feed the protesters, allowed them to occupy the country's congress building, and joined Indian leader Antonio Vargas and a judge, Carlos Solorzano in "announcing a government of national salvation."

The coup did not last long and the old government returned to power, but with a new president to replace the discredited predecessor.

Gutierrez and other supporters of the coup were imprisoned for six months and expelled from the army.

As with many other military men who have entered politics in Latin American countries, Gutiérrez's first experiences in a public forum date back to a period of political and social unrest.

Indigenous and poor Ecuadorans staged massive protests when the Jamil Mahuad government decided to adopt the U.S. dollar as the national currency in 2000.

Gutiérrez disobeyed the government's order to repress the protestors and instead, together with fellow officers and their troops, joined the movement to depose president Mahuad.

Days later, the Ecuadoran Congress deposed the president and the vice-president took the presidential chair

Gutiérrez entered the national spotlight during the 2000 Ecuadorian coup d'état that unseated President Jamil Mahuad for three hours and forced him to abandon office after demonstrations in Quito by thousands of Indigenous Ecuadorians protested the Mahuad government's support of neoliberal economic policies, particularly the proposed dollarization plans.

Instead of ordering to disperse the protesters, then Col. Gutiérrez and the army stood aside and let them take over the national parliament.

Under pressure from the United States, and lacking support from the indigenous movement, the Junta was dissolved by General Carlos Mendoza and the Congress named then Vice President Gustavo Noboa as president of the country.

The armed forces jailed Gutiérrez for six months, but he was discharged, and faced no criminal prosecution despite the fact he was a direct participant.

Prior to the 2000 coup, Gutiérrez was aide-de-camp to former presidents Abdalá Bucaram and Fabián Alarcón.

Gutiérrez ran for President in 2002 as the candidate of the January 21 Patriotic Society Party (PSP), named for the date of the 2000 protest, and the Pachakutik Movement, on a platform of fighting corruption and reversing neoliberal economic reforms.

He defeated banana magnate and wealthiest man in Ecuador, Álvaro Noboa, in the second round with 55% of the popular vote, through a partnership with the leftist and indigenous movement parties, Democratic People's Movement (Movimiento Popular Democratico/MPD) and Pachacutik, respectively.

Gutiérrez alienated many of his supporters by supporting the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and by keeping the status-quo on economic issues.

After three months of government, Gutiérrez broke his alliance with leftist parties and reached an agreement with the Social Christian Party (Partido Social Cristiano/PSC), continuing the economic policies of its predecessors and increasing bonds with the United States.

The government received increased frequent accusations of corruption and nepotism.

After two years, Gutiérrez broke the agreement with the PSC, further weakening the government politically.

In November 2004 his former left-wing supporters joined with the conservative PSC in launching an effort to impeach him on various charges.

Gutiérrez was accused of embezzlement by the PSC for using funds, resources and public property in favor of PSP candidates in the elections of 2004, and by the Democratic Left (Ecuador) (Izquierda Democrática/ID), MPD and Pachakutik for jeopardizing the security of the state for literally inciting the people to burn the courts.

Impeachment proceedings collapsed when two legislators broke party lines, and a majority (51) votes could not be reached to continue the proceedings.

In December 2004, Gutiérrez alleged that the Supreme Court of Justice was biased in favor of the PSC.