2024-09-22 08:56:22
Former head of the Judiciary, Wilman Terán, faces impeachment with the certainty that there are currently no votes to censure him in the Assembly.
Except for some “informal hallway conversations,” no one would be looking in the Assembly for the three or four votes needed to achieve the censure of the former president of the Judicial Council (CJ), Wilman Terán, on Tuesday, July 16.
For now, the support of the Construye movement, the Social Christian Party (PSC), the government bench, National Democratic Action (ADN) and some independents are guaranteed. Together, they add up to 88 votes. This is a similar number of votes to those who voted in favor of not shelving the case against Terán, as proposed by the Citizen Revolution, and continuing with the trial. But for censure, 92 votes are needed.
The interpellant, Jorge Peñafiel, from the Construye movement, insisted on July 15 that, to achieve this, the votes of some assembly members from the Correa bench are inevitably needed. “Those votes have to come from the Citizen Revolution, because they are the only ones missing to achieve the vote.
Otherwise, they will have to bear the cost of what it means not to sanction a totally questionable official,” said Peñafiel. The Citizen Revolution bench will meet on the afternoon of July 15 to adopt a position. But its members agree that, during the process of substantiation of the trial, there was no evidence against Terán, and for that reason, they asked for it to be filed.
Trial Procedure
The President of the Assembly, Henry Kronfle, called for 10:00 on July 16 for the impeachment trial against Terán and the former member of the Judiciary, Maribel Barreno.
According to the Secretary of the Assembly, Alejandro Muñoz, there would be no need to re-read the entire report, because it was already presented in its entirety last Monday during the trial of the former member, Xavier Muñoz.
Consequently, the questioning party will move directly to Peñafiel’s intervention, which will have two hours to present his accusations. Both Terán and Barreno will be able to defend themselves for three hours. Then there will be a space for the reply, in which both the questioner and the questioned have up to one hour. From there, the debate is expected, in which the 137 assembly members can intervene.
Build Posture
Anticipating the events, the Construye movement projected, on July 15, what its position will be regarding the political trials that will be processed in the Oversight Commission and the plenary session of the Assembly.
This group rejects the Citizen Revolution’s intention to censure and remove the foreign minister, Gabriela Sommerfeld, for the police raid on the Mexican Embassy in Quito on April 5.
“Preventing the escape of (Jorge) Glas does not merit dismissal,” the party announced in a statement, although it believes that Daniel Noboa’s government had other options to prevent the eventual escape of the former vice president.
Those who do not have the support of Construye are the Minister of the Interior, Mónica Palencia, who is questioned for the “non-existence” of the Fenix Plan or, if it exists, for what they consider to have been a failure in terms of security. They will also cast their votes for the censure of the former Minister of Energy, Andrea Arrobo, who they accuse of being one of those responsible for the country’s energy problems.
By: PRIMICIAS