Patriotic Society Party


The Patriotic Society Party, formerly the January 21 Patriotic Society is a populist and personalist political party in Ecuador, led by former army colonel Lucio Gutiérrez. 21 January refers to the date of the 2000 Ecuadorean coup d'état.
At the legislative elections, 20 October 2002, the party won at least two out of one hundred seats, but some additional seats in alliances with other parties. Its leader Lucio Gutiérrez, a key figure in the 2000 coup d'état, won in an alliance with the indigenous Pachakutik Movement 20.3% of the vote in the presidential elections of the same day and won the second round with 58.7%. His campaign appealed especially to indigenous citizens and lower-class voters. However, Gutiérrez was deposed in 2005, and his successor, Alfredo Palacio was not a member of the party. Gutiérrez subsequently returned to Ecuador and was imprisoned for five months before being released. He wasn't allowed to participate in the 2006 vote to succeed Palacio because his political rights were suspended. Rafael Correa won the election.
His brother, Gilmar Gutierrez, was the party's presidential candidate in the 2006 elections. Gilmar received 17% of the vote and came in third place. However, the party won 23 of 100 seats and was the second largest party in Congress, where no party had anything close to a majority. Defections to the government left the party with 19 seats.
Lucio Gutiérrez recovered his political rights in 2008 and has unsuccessfully run again for president in 2009 and 2013.