Ecuador - Rise to power

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.

Gutiérrez was arrested and imprisoned, but popular mobilization and domestic pressure brought about his release. Gutiérrez resigned from the army and opted to form his own political party, the January 21 Patriotic Society Party, named after the day popular mobilization toppled the Mahuad government. Running an antiestablishment campaign, Gutiérrez skillfully courted the support of the large—but until then politically uninfluential—indigenous population. Grouped under the Pachacutik New Country National Movement, most indigenous people rallied behind Gutiérrez as he actively campaigned for the 2002 presidential election. Because traditional parties had paid a dear price for the 1999 economic crisis, he quickly emerged as the frontrunner among the presidential candidates. Yet, the multiparty and fragmented system that has characterized Ecuadoran politics for decades resulted in a packed field of 11 presidential candidates competing in the election. Gutiérrez obtained 20% of the vote, and was forced into a runoff election against Alvaro Noboa, a member of a traditional political family in Ecuador. In the runoff election held on 20 October, he was able to win the support of most minor candidates. He easily defeated Noboa by a 58.7% to 41.3% margin.