Ecuador, 2000 — military coup attempt

Event Summary

On 21 January 2000 an unusual coalition of Ecuador's most powerful indigenous movement and a group of junior military officers overthrew President Jamil Mahuad, only for the coup to be reversed within hours by the military high command. Ecuador was gripped by its worst economic crisis in decades, and Mahuad's deeply unpopular plan to abandon the national currency for the US dollar had brought thousands of indigenous protesters from CONAIE flooding into Quito. On 21 January they occupied Congress, and junior officers led by Lieutenant Colonel Lucio Gutierrez joined them; together with CONAIE president Antonio Vargas they declared a government of national salvation and installed a juntai.

But the senior generals, wary of international condemnation and lacking public support for military rule, moved swiftly: the armed forces chief General Carlos Mendoza briefly joined the juntai, then dissolved it and handed power to Mahuad's vice president, Gustavo Noboa. The coup leaders were arrested, and Gutierrez was imprisoned and expelled from the army, though he would later be elected president in 2002. Mahuad was ousted, but the coalition's radical bid failed.