Lucio Gutiérrez
Lucio Edwin Gutiérrez Borbúa (born
March 23,
1957),
Ecuadorian
military and
politician.
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 was forced to abandon his office following demonstrations in
Quito by thousands of indigenous Ecuadorians protesting the Mahuad government's support of
neo-liberalist economic policies, especially dollarization. Instead of ordering to disperse the protestors, Gutiérrez 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." To preserve the military hierarchy, Gutierrez agreed to be replaced by General Mendoza. 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
Gustavo Noboa could assume the office of the presidency. The armed forces jailed Gutiérrez for six months, was discharged, but faced no criminal prosecution.
Gutiérrez ran for President in
2002 as the candidate of the
January 21 Patriotic Society Party (PSP), named for the date of the unsuccessful 2000 protest, and the
Pachakutik Movement, on a platform of fighting corruption and reversing
neoliberal economic reforms. He defeated
banana magnate and the wealthiest man in Ecuador
Álvaro Noboa in the second round with 55% of the popular vote, through a partnership with the leftist and indigeneous movement parties, MPD and Pachacutik, respectively.
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. After three months of government, it broke up the alliance with the left parties and he reaches an agreement with PSC, implementing a neoliberal politics and narrowing their bonds with the United States. Little by little they left making but you frequent the accusations against their government for corruption and nepotism. To the two years he brokes the agreement with PSC and the government was very weakened politically.
His former
left-wing supporters joined with the conservative Social Christian Party (PSC) in November
2004 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 (ID), MPD and Pachakutik for jeopardizing the security of the state with the importation of posters from Mexico during the 2002 presidential election, for involving Ecuador in Plan Colombia, and for inciting the people to literally burn the courts, respectively. Impeachment proceedings collapsed when two legislators broke party lines, and a majority (51) votes could not be acquired to continue the proceedings.
In
December 2004, Gutiérrez alleged that the
Supreme Court of Justice was biased in favor of the (
Partido Social Cristiano/PSC). His political party
Sociedad Patriótica, together with
PRIAN (
Álvaro Noboa), PRE (
Abdalá Bucaram), independents and MPD, voted in Congress for the reorganization of the Supreme Court of Justice via majority resolution, 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 political parties 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.
Crisis
On
April 15,
2005, amid a growing political crisis and protests in the city of Quito 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 the State of Emergency was disobeyed by citizens and General Aguas of the army, who refused to enforce it, and Ecuador's Congress was expected to hold a session in order to decide whether to ratify the Supreme Court's dismissal. [
1]Former president
Abdala Bucaram had been permitted to return from exile in Panama on April 2, presumably in return for the support of his PRE party in Congress and his substantial number of street-level activists.
On
April 20,
2005,following a week of massive manifestations demanding their renouncement, the
Congress of Ecuador (meeting in a special session in a private building, CIESPAL, 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. The Ecuatorian Constitution say what is nessesary 2/3 parts of the votes for do it. At the same time, the Ecuadorian
Comando Conjunto de las Fuerzas Armadas, (a military body equivalent to the
Joint Chiefs of Staff), publicly expressed that they were withdrawing their support for Gutiérrez, who had no option but to leave the Presidential Palace on a helicopter and finally sought
political asylum in the
house of the
Brazilian
Ambassador in the
north of
Quito, after his attempt to leave the city aboard a plane at Quito's International
Airport was thwarted by hundreds of angry protesters that breached airport security and blocked the airstrip. Bucaram, meanwhile, had secretly left the country for Panama, his return from exile having lasted merely 18 days.
Additionally, in this same day, the CIESPAL building, was attack for the demonstrators indignat with Gutierrez but also with the deputies, and many deputies were injured. The new President Alfredo Palacio was contained in this building many hours waiting the help of the army.
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,
2005. He renounced his asylum, then went to
Peru and the
United States. In September he was reported to be seeking asylum in
Colombia. This was offered on
October 4 only to be refused by Gutierrez on
October 13. Then on
October 15 he voluntarily returned to Ecuador vowing to "use all legal and constitutional means to retake power." He was arrested at the "
Eloy Alfaro" airport [
2] in
Manta and taken to a
prison in
Quito, locked in a maximum-security cell, on charges of attempting to subvert Ecuador's internal security by repeatedly proclaiming to the international
media that he continues to be the legitimate
President of the
Republic of Ecuador.
On March 3, 2006, a judge in Ecuador dismissed the charges against Gutierrez. Was very notorius a politic trade of Gutierrez with the (
Partido Social Cristiano/PSC), Gutierrez take the freedom and the deputies of PSP help to the PSC to take a majority for controller the Constitutional Court. Upon his release, Gutierrez thanked the Ecuadorean people for their support and vowed that he would win the election in October.
*
Presidencia de la República*
Seeking asylum in Colombia*
Arrest
