Lucio Gutiérrez

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

(Redirected from Lucio Gutierrez)
Jump to: navigation, search
Lucio Gutiérrez
Enlarge
Lucio Gutiérrez

Lucio Edwin Gutiérrez Borbúa (born March 23, 1957) is a Ecuadorian ex-soldier and politician; he was President of Ecuador from January 15, 2003 to April 20, 2005.

Contents

Presidency

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 support of neo-liberalist economic policies. Ordered to disperse the protestors, Gutiérrez instead 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 (PSP), named for the date of the unsuccessful 2000 protests, on a platform of fighting corruption and reversing neoliberal economic reforms. He defeated banana magnate and one of the 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 (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 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 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 2nd April, presumably in return for the support of his PRE party in Congress and his substantial number of street-level activists. On arrival, Bucaram gave a speech in which he suggested that the seriously ill Pope was refusing to die until he (Bucaram) was safely back on his native soil. Later that day, Pope John Paul II died. The outrage at the apparent tasteless of Bucaram's comments in a country with a substantial proportion of devout Roman Catholics only added to Gutierrez's problems.

On April 20, 2005, following a week of escalating demonstrations and severe repression, including the arrival of several dozen busloads of PSP and PRE supporters in Quito to mount counter-demonstrations in support of Gutierrez, the Congress of Ecuador (meeting in a special session in a private building, 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 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 somehow managed to get past airport security and blocked the airstrip. Bucaram, meanwhile, had secretly left the country for Panama, his return from exile having lasted merely 18 days.

Exile and arrest

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 an airport 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.


Preceded by:
Gustavo Noboa
President of Ecuador
2002-2005
Succeeded by:
Alfredo Palacio

External links

Personal tools