- In full:
- Lucio Edwin Gutiérrez Borbúa
- Born:
- March 23, 1957, Quito, Ecuador (age 69)
- Title / Office:
- president (2003-2005), Ecuador
Lucio Gutiérrez
-
Who is Lucio Gutiérrez?
Lucio Gutiérrez (born in Quito, Ecuador, on March 23, 1957) is an army colonel and politician. In 2000, he was jailed after an unsuccessful coup, but he was pardoned and founded the Patriotic Society Party of January 21 (PSP). In 2003, Gutiérrez became president of Ecuador, but he lost congressional support after instituting austerity measures. Following antigovernment demonstrations, he was ousted by the National Congress in 2005 and sought political asylum in Colombia. After returning to Ecuador, he was arrested for threatening national security but was later released. Gutiérrez unsuccessfully ran for president again in 2009 and 2013.
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When did Lucio Gutiérrez become president of Ecuador?
Lucio Gutiérrez served as president of Ecuador from January 15, 2003, until he was ousted by the National Congress in April 2005. A former army colonel and politician, Gutiérrez rose to prominence after participating in a coup in January 2000. Subsequently jailed, he was later pardoned and founded the Patriotic Society Party of January 21 (PSP). He then campaigned for president, promising to combat corruption, racial inequality, and poverty. Gutiérrez won the presidential election in 2002, defeating Álvaro Noboa in the second round of voting.
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What was Lucio Gutiérrez’s background before becoming president?
Lucio Gutiérrez, born on March 23, 1957, in Quito, Ecuador, served as president of Ecuador from 2003 to 2005. Raised in Tena, he attended primary and secondary school there before entering a military college in Quito at age 15. Gutiérrez graduated as a civil engineer from the Army Polytechnic School, earning honors for academics and athletics, and later studied in Brazil and the United States.
Rising through army ranks, he served with the UN observer mission to Nicaragua in 1990–92. Initially apolitical, he sympathized with Ecuadorans' discontent over corruption and poverty in the 1990s. In 1997, he refused to use force against protesters as aide-de-camp to President Abdalá Bucaram Ortiz, who was later ousted. In 1999, Gutiérrez questioned government conduct under President Jamil Mahuad Witt.
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What main policies or changes did Lucio Gutiérrez introduce as president?
As president of Ecuador (2003–2005), Lucio Gutiérrez instituted austerity measures, including cuts to food and electricity, after dropping his initial opposition to the adoption of the U.S. dollar. In December 2004, he filled Supreme Court positions with political allies, which led to antigovernment demonstrations. In April 2005, after the court dropped corruption charges against former president Abdalá Bucaram, violent protests broke out again in Quito. Gutiérrez then dissolved the Supreme Court in an attempt to quell the rioters but was ousted by the National Congress the following week.
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Why was Lucio Gutiérrez’s time as president controversial?
Lucio Gutiérrez's presidency (2003-2005) was controversial due to several actions. He initially opposed the adoption of the U.S. dollar but later embraced it and instituted austerity measures, including cuts in food and electricity subsidies. This led to the loss of congressional support from the New Country–Pachakutik Movement in August 2003.
In December 2004, Gutiérrez filled Supreme Court positions with political allies, sparking antigovernment demonstrations. Further fueling the unrest, in April 2005, the Supreme Court dropped corruption charges against former president Bucaram. After Gutiérrez dissolved the Supreme Court in response, the National Congress ousted him the following week.
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What happened to Lucio Gutiérrez after he left the presidency?
After being ousted from the presidency in April 2005, Lucio Gutiérrez fled Ecuador and sought political asylum in Colombia, accusing his successor, Alfredo Palacio, of overthrowing him in a coup. Upon his return to Ecuador in October 2005, he was arrested for threatening national security, but the charges were dropped in March 2006. Gutiérrez ran unsuccessfully for president in the 2009 elections and again in 2013. In 2010, he denied any wrongdoing after being accused of orchestrating a coup attempt against Pres. Rafael Correa by his supporters.
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Lucio Gutiérrez (born March 23, 1957, Quito, Ecuador) is an 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 honours for academic and athletic prowess. He later studied in Brazil and the United States.
Gutiérrez rose steadily through the army ranks and in 1990–92 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. 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.
On January 21, 2000, after Mahuad announced the replacement of Ecuador’s national currency with the U.S. dollar—a move that would increase the cost of basic commodities—he was removed from the presidency in a coup engineered by indigenous leaders and middle-ranking military officers. Gutiérrez announced that he and two others had formed a “junta of national salvation.” The rebellion was short-lived, however; Gutiérrez lacked the confidence of the military high command. He was replaced in the junta by Gen. Carlos Mendoza, the armed forces chief of staff, who announced that Vice Pres. Gustavo Noboa Bejarano would succeed Mahuad.
Jailed after the uprising, Gutiérrez was pardoned in June 2000 after a public campaign led by his wife, Ximena Bohórquez Romero, a physician, with whom he had two daughters. He left the army, founded the Patriotic Society Party of January 21 (Partido Sociedad Patriótica 21 de Enero; PSP), and plunged into civilian politics, promising an all-out war on corruption, racial inequality, and poverty. The PSP supported Gutiérrez’s candidacy for president in 2002. Ecuadorans, hungry for fresh solutions to their country’s seemingly endless difficulties, gave him a resounding mandate in the elections. Gutiérrez, then a political outsider, defeated banana billionaire Alvaro Noboa in the second round of voting for the presidency on November 24. He was inaugurated on January 15, 2003.
As president, Gutiérrez dropped his early opposition to the adoption of the U.S. dollar and instituted austerity measures that included cuts in food and electricity. In August 2003 he lost the congressional support of the New Country–Pachakutik Movement, a coalition formed in 1998 whose electoral support came mainly from indigenous groups, and the future of his legislative program was thrown into doubt.
When Gutiérrez filled Supreme Court positions with political allies in December 2004, antigovernment demonstrations ensued in the capital. In April 2005 the court dropped corruption charges against former president Bucaram, and again violent protests erupted in Quito. After Gutiérrez dissolved the Supreme Court, hoping to calm the rioters, he was ousted by the National Congress the following week. He fled the country and sought political asylum in Colombia. While in Bogotá, Gutiérrez accused his successor, Alfredo Palacio, of overthrowing him in a coup. Gutiérrez returned to Ecuador in October 2005 and was arrested for threatening national security. The charges were dropped in March 2006, and Gutiérrez was released.
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He ran unsuccessfully for president in the 2009 elections. The following year, protests against Pres. Rafael Correa escalated into a virtual coup attempt, which Correa blamed on Gutiérrez’s supporters. Gutiérrez, however, denied any wrongdoing. In 2013 he staged another failed bid for the presidency.