2023-05-16 10:42:47
The National Assembly of Ecuador meets this Tuesday to stage a an unprecedented event in 44 years of institutional life. The president of the country, Guillermo Lassofaces a impeachment for alleged embezzlement of public funds. “I’m innocent. In my personal, professional and public life, I have always acted with the right intention,” he said. For the former banker, who assumed the presidency on May 24, 2021 and, since then, has not stopped walking the thin rope of instability, this attempt to motion of censure “it smells really bad”. Beyond the aroma that it gives off, Lasso faces a multicolored attack that brings together the Union for Hope (Unes) of the former president Rafael Correathe Pachakutik indigenous movement, independent sectors and even the Christian Social Party (PSC), a former electoral associate of the tycoon. To remove him you need 92 votes out of 137 assemblymen.
The trial door opened with 88 votes. The right-wing government thought that this situation was not going to take place. Lasso warned belatedly and said that it was a “parliamentary coup” for which he prepares in the worst case.
According to the opposition forces, Lasso is allegedly responsible for the crime of embezzlement (embezzlement) by having knowledge of the irregularities in a contract signed by the state company Flota Petrolera del Ecuador (Flopec) and the private firm Amazonas Tanker. Although this agreement dates from 2018 and was renewed under the presidency of Lenin Morenothe president’s adversaries believe that he did nothing to bring this damaging arrangement to an end.
In 2022, Lasso managed to avoid a situation similar to the present one, when in the midst of a wave of protests led by the indigenous movement, the Assembly did not obtain enough votes for a motion of no confidence. The presidential figure continued to weaken with the electoral beating of months ago.
The political conditions of adversity have not changed for the Government today. The new trial will be commanded by Virgilio Saquicela, a Social Christian who has just been ratified as the main authority of the legislature. The Minister of Government, Henry Cucalón, confirmed on Monday the presence of Lasso in the compound, despite the little expectation that a fair process will be carried out. “Are we going to have dignitaries who are puppets of unspeakable goals among which is impunity or are we going to have authorities that work in favor of the general interest?
Citizens deserve to know if the legislative agenda is to generate more chaos, uncertainty and impunity or to work for the development of Ecuador. pic.twitter.com/Y9wKMlgHJb
– Ministry of Government Ecuador (@MinGobiernoEc) May 15, 2023
The agenda
Assembly members will have two hours to ask Lasso. Then, the president will have three hours to present his argument. Subsequently, each party may respond for a maximum time of one hour. The Assembly will then resume the discussion. The law establishes a period of five days to define what Minister Cucalón described as a procedure “illegitimate that was born, developed and will end without evidence, without arguments and with serious legal flaws”.
Correa, who is in exile in Belgium, and his followers believe that a time of political revenge. “Almost there… The glory days will return, they will return,” he wrote on his Twitter account. The newspaper Trade of Quito warned about the danger of Parliament playing “with fire” in this instance. “Ecuador, in the midst of its crises, must not forget that it has a commitment to democracy. And that everything must be measured with the yardstick of justice, legality, the common good. And that all the powers of the State are under the social scrutiny”.
#ATTENTION | “There will not be 92 votes to remove the President @LassoGuillermo”, said the Legal Secretary of the Presidency, @jportizmenain #VisaVisconJH. Although just in case the decree of #deathcross ready
Full interview ???????? pic.twitter.com/8180Nd2TDP
— Visionarias (@visionariasec) May 15, 2023
cross death
Related news
For Oswaldo Paz y Miño, columnist for The TelegraphLasso “has the constitutional mechanism of sending everyone home“. The columnist referred to what in that country is known as “death cross“, a way of calling the attributes that the Executive has to dissolve the representative powers of the State, under the constitutional protection and in case of “obstruction” of the presidential functions. This figure of the Magna Carta, introduced in article 148 of the 2008 reform, allows the president to interrupt his own management and that of the congressmen to immediately summon new general elections. He can only use this instrument once and before three years of exercise of power. Both Lasso and the legislators could participate in these elections. The Legal Secretary of the Presidency, Juan Pablo Ortiz, assured that the decree for the application of the “cross death” is already ready.
“There will not be 92 votes to remove the president”Ortiz said. In case that happens, the current vice president, Alfredo Borrero, should assume the presidency. If that doesn’t happen, analysts surmise, Lasso will have survived at a high political cost that will accentuate his weakness.
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