2024-07-19 14:55:21
Correísmo and PSC withdrew their signatures in support of the processing of three impeachments against officials of the previous administration. The Government of Daniel Noboa says that they are after the head of Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld.
A massive withdrawal of signatures of support scuttled, on July 1, 2024, three impeachments that were to be filed against former officials of Guillermo Lasso’s government, which were to be processed by the Oversight Commission.
The benches of the Citizen Revolution and the Social Christian Party (PSC) joined forces and left without support the impeachment against the former Secretary of Public Administration, Sebastián Corral. The request was submitted by the Correa supporter Patricia Nuñez, in mid-March, with 41 signatures of support. However, in the last few hours, 15 memos arrived at the Secretariat of the Assembly announcing that they no longer support it.
The commission’s legal advisor, Paula Echeverría, pointed out that at least 34 signatures are needed, so that requirement was not met. The commission’s president, Pamela Aguirre, said that if the trial continued under these conditions, it could nullify the entire process.
Something similar happened with the impeachment of Andrea Montalvo, former Secretary of Higher Education. The petition was submitted in April with 35 signatures and by June 30, four had been withdrawn, including that of the President of the Assembly, Henry Kronfle. Also, four signatures supporting the impeachment that was proposed by the government member, Inés Alarcón, against the former Minister of Economy and Finance, Pablo Arosemena Marriot, were withdrawn.
The government assured on June 30 that the intention of the new majority in the Assembly, made up of Correísmo, PSC and Construye, was to ‘drop’ these trials to speed up the eventual censure and dismissal of the chancellor, Gabriela Sommerfeld. “They are capable of forgiving the unforgivable, justifying the unjustifiable, and covering up the shameful,” added President Daniel Noboa in a message published on his X account, to reject the legislators’ claim.
The trial against Sommerfeld was initiated by Correa’s supporters after the police raided the Mexican Embassy in Quito, where former vice president Jorge Glas was captured.
For the same reason, the Citizen Revolution proposed to audit the Minister of the Interior, Mónica Palencia. According to the schedule handled by the Assembly’s Oversight Commission, after the impeachment of Arosemena, it is Chancellor Sommerfeld’s turn, followed by Palencia. For its part, the Construye movement made public a statement in which it points out that its legislators have not supported any of these impeachments, so it has not withdrawn any signature, as the Government claims.
By: PRIMICIAS