Editing Lucio Gutiérrez (section)

==Military career==

Gutierrez was born on 23 March 1957, in the city of Quito. Although holding degrees in civil engineering, administration and physical education, he chose a career with the Ecuadorian army, where he rose to the rank of colonel before his involvement in a coup against the government.

In January 2000, thousands of Ecuadorians of Andean Indian descent massed in the capital of Quito to protest corruption in the government and economic policy. Ordered to break up demonstrations, Gutierrez instead helped feed the protesters, allowed them to occupy the country's congress building, and joined Indian leader Antonio Vargas and a judge, Carlos Solorzano in "announcing a government of national salvation."

The coup did not last long and the old government returned to power, but with a new president to replace the discredited predecessor. Gutierrez and other supporters of the coup were imprisoned for six months and expelled from the army.<ref>{{cite book |title=Gale Biography in Context |date=18 May 2009 |publisher=Gale, a Cengage Company}}</ref>

As with many other military men who have entered politics in Latin American countries, Gutiérrez's first experiences in a public forum date back to a period of political and social unrest. Indigenous and poor Ecuadorans staged massive protests when the Jamil Mahuad government decided to adopt the U.S. dollar as the national currency in 2000. Gutiérrez disobeyed the government's order to repress the protestors and instead, together with fellow officers and their troops, joined the movement to depose president Mahuad. Days later, the Ecuadoran Congress deposed the president and the vice-president took the presidential chair<ref>{{cite news |title=NotiSur-South American Political and Economic Affairs |agency=The Oil Daily |publisher=The Economist |date=30 November 2002}}</ref>