Ximena Bohórquez

Ximena Bohórquez Romero (born November 12, 1956) is an Ecuadorian physician and politician of the Patriotic Society Party. She served as the First Lady of Ecuador from January 15, 2003, to April 20, 2005, as the wife of President Lucio Gutiérrez. She was also a member of the National Congress and the Constituent Assembly of 2007.

Biography Ximena Bohórquez was born in Quito on November 12, 1956, the youngest of eight siblings. Her parents promoted the goal of higher education for all of their children, so Ximena decided to enter the Central University of Ecuador's Faculty of Medicine, from which she graduated in 1982.

In 2000, she requested the dissolution of her conjugal partnership with Gutiérrez on the grounds of mistrust, although they eventually reconciled. In 2009, her husband filed a new divorce claim due to "incompatibility of characters", but this was denied by the court.

Political life Bohórquez entered politics after the coup d'état of January 21, 2000, in which her husband was a key actor. After Gutiérrez was imprisoned, she became leader of the Popular Parliament of Quito, an unofficial entity that brought together some social groups in the capital city, and that finally won his release.

During her tenure at INNFA, she managed to allocate it a budget of more than $76 million. She signed an agreement with Bambino Gesù Hospital in Italy for the care of children with catastrophic illnesses. The same year, she disaffiliated from the Patriotic Society Party after being expelled from the National Congress for voting against her bloc, an event that led to problems her the marriage which were resolved in court in 2009. She subsequently returned to the party in a less public role. She was a candidate for National Assembly in the February 2021 general election, but failed to win a seat.