Global Policy Forum

Ecuadorians Elect Former Coup Leader As President

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By Juan Forero

New York Times
November 26, 2002


Lucio Edwin Gutierrez, a former Ecuadoran Army colonel who briefly took power in a coup almost three years ago, has been elected president on promises to root out corruption and give voice to the poor. Gutierrez had 54 percent of the vote in Sunday's election against 46 percent for his opponent, Alvaro Noboa, a banana tycoon who spent handsomely to try to cast himself as a populist.

The victory for Gutierrez, a career military man with no other experience in public office, was seen as a reflection of widespread discontent with traditional politicians, who are viewed by many as corrupt purveyors of a status quo that favors special interests at the expense of most Ecuadorans.

"Ecuador can begin to convert itself into a more just country, a more honest country, a country with a better living standard and a country that is authentically democratic," Gutierrez told a television interviewer Sunday evening. Gutierrez is the latest politician to benefit from the disenchantment that many Latin Americans have with traditional political parties after the free-market prescriptions pushed by the United States and multinational lending agencies. Most countries in Latin America have seen little tangible benefit from these steps, with poverty rising and living standards falling.

In Brazil, a former labor leader, Luiz Inacio da Silva, was elected president last month, and in Bolivia and Peru, populist, left-leaning movements surged in recent elections. In Argentina, in the throes of economic chaos, three of the four main presidential candidates are left of center.

Gutierrez, 45, survived a late surge by Noboa, 52, who saturated the airwaves with commercials that depicted his opponent as a dangerous radical. In all, Noboa spent more than $1 million on advertisements, $800,000 more than permitted. Gutierrez also overspent, but by $56,000.

Noboa, who inherited one of Latin America's great fortunes and is considered the richest man in Ecuador, portrayed himself as a populist friend of the underclass. But he has been accused of employing children and mistreating workers on his banana farms, and analysts said his plans for governing were unclear.

With his dark skin and features indicating some Indian heritage, Gutierrez struck a chord in a country of 13 million people where a small minority of white businessmen and politicians have always ruled. Gutierrez began an aggressive campaign two years ago to reach out to Ecuador's Indians, its trade unions and its left-wing parties. His strategy was to cast himself as a patriot and relentless corruption fighter speaking out for the 60 percent of Ecuadorans who live in poverty. "We started in my old car, three or four people, running around Ecuador, eating in the car, sleeping in the car," Gutierrez said Sunday. "Little by little, we began to reach people."

Gutierrez, a former pentathlete who entered the military academy at the age of 15, started down the path of the classic Latin American strongman. Leading a group of military officers who joined an Indian uprising in 2000, Gutierrez became the most visible leader in the coup that toppled President Jamil Mahuad, whose administration was reviled as indecisive, inefficient and corrupt.

Gutierrez was part of a three-man junta that lasted only a few hours before it was dissolved and the vice president, Gustavo Naboa, took over. Gutierrez was promptly jailed, but on his release a few months later formed a political party, the Jan. 21 Patriotic Society, named after the date of Mahuad's overthrow.

In its manifesto, the party promises "war to the death" on corruption, to look for an alternative to the dollar, which became the official currency in 2000, and to reconsider ways to pay the foreign debt without affecting social programs.

But Gutierrez's statements, particularly since he finished first among 11 candidates in the first round of voting on Oct. 20, have shifted to the political center. With investors jittery about his first-round victory, he traveled to the United States last month to meet with economists and officials of multinational lending agencies.


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FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.