Editing Lucio Gutiérrez (section)

==Early life==

Lucio Gutierrez, in full Lucio Edwin Gutiérrez Borbua, (born 23 March 1957, Quito, Ecuador), 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 honor's for academic and athletic prowess. He later studied in Brazil and the United States.

Gutiérrez rose steadily through the army ranks. In 1990–92 he 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.