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Lucio Edwin Gutiérrez Borbúa (born March 23, 1957) is an Ecuadorian soldier and politician; he was President of Ecuador from January 15, 2003 to April 20, 2005.
Gutiérrez was prominent in a short-lived junta that replaced President Jamil Mahuad in 2000, after he abandoned his office following demonstrations in Quito by thousands of indigenous Ecuadorians protesting the Mahuad government's corruption and support of neo-liberalist economic policies. Ordered to disperse the protestors, Gutiérrez instead organized mobile kitchens to feed them and stood aside when they took over the national parliament building. Gutiérrez then joined with one leader of the protest, and invited a retired Supreme Court judge, to form a "government of national salvation." Under pressure from the United States, and lacking support from the indigenous movement, the junta stepped down after twenty-four hours so that the Vice President could assume the office of the presidency. The armed forces jailed Gutiérrez for six months.
Gutiérrez ran for President in 2002 as the candidate of the January 21 Patriotic Society Party, named for the date of the unsuccessful 2000 protests, on a platform of fighting corruption and reversing anti-neo-liberal economic reforms. He defeated banana magnate and richest man in Ecuador Álvaro Noboa in the second round with 55% of the popular vote.
Gutiérrez began alienating many of his supporters even before taking office, however, by taking inconsistent positions on whether he supported joining the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and lost much of his support by pursuing conservative economic policies as president. His former left-wing supporters joined with the conservative Social Christian Party in November 2004 in launching an effort to impeach him on charges of spending public funds in support of the candidates of his party in the most recent elections. That effort collapsed a week later when the Social Christian Party withdrew its support for the proceedings.
In December 2004, Gutiérrez alleged that the Supreme Court of Justice was biased in favor of the Social Christians (Partido Social Cristiano/PSC). His political party Sociedad Patriótica, together with PRIAN (Álvaro Noboa) and PRE (Abdalá Bucaram), voted in Congress for the cancellation of the Supreme Court of Justice, even though the Constitution gives autonomy to the judicial branch and does not authorize Congress to interfere in the judiciary by removing or nominating judges. Judges were replaced by allies to PRE, PRIAN and PSP with the clear intention of dropping criminal charges against former president Abdalá Bucaram, accused of several acts of corruption during his presidency leading to his self-exile in Panama from 1997 until April 2005.
On April 15, 2005, amid a growing environment of political crisis and protests against the government, President Gutiérrez declared a state of emergency in Quito and revoked the newly appointed Supreme Court of Justice. This was a controversial move that provoked conflicting reactions; in fact, it was seen by analysts as a dictatorial act. The state of emergency was lifted on April 16, as Ecuador's Congress was expected to hold a session in order to decide whether to ratify the Supreme Court's dismissal. [1] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4453153.stm)
On April 20, 2005, following a week of escalating demonstrations and severe repression, the Congress of Ecuador (in a special session with opposition delegates only), on the ground that Gutiérrez had abandoned his constitutional duties (a dubious claim: at that moment he was still in the presidential palace and was forced to leave later), voted 60-2 (38 deputies, including the great majority of PRE/PRIAN/PSP deputies, did not vote) to remove him from office and appointed Vice President Alfredo Palacio to serve as President. At the same time, the top commanders of Ecuador's military publicly expressed that they were withdrawing their support for Gutiérrez, who left the presidential palace in a helicopter and finally sought political asylum in the house of the Brazilian ambassador in the north of Quito, after his attempt to take a plane at Quito's airport was thwarted by protesters that invaded the airstrip. Brazil offered Gutiérrez asylum and arranged air transport out of Ecuador for the former president. He arrived in Brasília via Rio Branco on April 24.
| Preceded by: Gustavo Noboa | President of Ecuador 2002-2005 | Succeeded by: Alfredo Palacio References
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