Council of Ecuador calls for Guillermo Lasso to be held accountable | international

Ecuador’s General Assembly has voted in favor of continuing impeachment proceedings against the president, Guillermo Lasso, which could result in his reprimand and removal. The decision was made in a session on Tuesday after the Legislative Review Committee failed to agree with the report which said there was no evidence to prosecute the president. Defendants in the impeachment trial argued before the plenary session that they had evidence that Laso knew of breaches of a contract harmful to the state between the state oil carrier, Flopec, and Amazonas Tanker. They emphasized that the president did not take measures to prevent its continuation. The motion to continue the process was approved by a vote of 88 lawmakers.

Government minister Henri Cocalon responded on Twitter, saying it was an “illegal operation that was born, developed and will end without evidence, without arguments and with serious legal flaws”. The official did not give details of the options that the president would have to demand by intersection with death or the dissolution of Congress, which is a constitutional tool that can be imposed according to three criteria: due to serious internal disturbances, when members of the House obstruct its work. Planning and when to take on tasks that are not their responsibility. Only in the latter case is it required to pass through the candidate of the Constitutional Court. Lasso had already said that he would summon the Cross of Death if he got the charge.

The next step in the process is for the president of the assembly, Virgilio Sacisella, to request the documents collected by the committee, which for 10 days has collected more than 100 types of evidence between documents and testimonies, to inform the legislators. Then you must call a session where Guillermo Lasso must appear to defend himself. A vote of 92 from the 137 members of the assembly is required to censure and remove the president who was elected to rule until 2025.

The impeachment process has divided the Ecuadorian Assembly because it occurs in the midst of the biennial change of powers, when legislators internally elect a new president and vice president and the board of directors and permanent parliamentary committees are reorganized. In this context, the pro-government body guarantees negotiation for senior positions to continue the impeachment procedures, while the opposition attacks the government for granting it a public position in return for voting against it.

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