Laso, Ecuador’s helmsman

Without support in the legislature and on the verge of impeachment in Congress for alleged corruption, the president preferred to anticipate and dissolve Congress, nipping in the bud the plans of his greatest enemy: strong law, and the powers attached to the former. Socialist President Rafael Correa (2007-2017), who were in the majority on the council.

In doing so, he also set the expiration date for his government, which will remain afloat while Ecuador elects, in three months’ time, a new president.

When ordering its dissolution, Lasu, 67, said the opposition Congress party “has as a political project the destabilization of the government, democracy and the state,” in a measure known as the “crossover of death.”

The former banker, conservative but above all anti-chorista, took office for a four-year term in May 2021, after two defeats in the elections.

Then he endorsed the sentence “He who perseveres will attain.”

And the third time was the charm of the Opus Dei member, who boasts of having achieved a massive covid-19 vaccination in record time.

Lasso came to power with a message of change but soon fell out of favor: more than a dozen prison massacres, growing insecurity and drug trafficking, and violent social protests over the rising cost of living put the noose around his neck.

However, in June last year he succeeded in the first attempt by the National Assembly to impeach him amid indigenous-led demonstrations that left six dead.

the nose

Laso took office with a renewed image and a message of renewal after the “21st century socialism” contract promoted by Correa, who at the end of his term moved to Belgium, where he remained in asylum. The leftist was notorious throughout his tenure, and ended up embroiled in corruption scandals.

Already in his position, the personal lasso reverted to the character of a solid official former banker. Of course, he kept his momentum up against Corismo, which in turn put him on the ropes in an impeachment trial that remained inconclusive.

During his two years in office, the president has been losing “legitimacy” at such an accelerating rate that “9 out of 10 Ecuadorians do not believe him and suspect corruption,” Paulina Ricalde, who runs opinion polls, tells AFP.

The president’s credibility has increased from 70% at the beginning of his government to 10%.

The downfall was evident when he called a referendum in February in which he intended to pass extradition to fight crime.

Voters turned their backs on that and seven other proposals that included issues such as reducing the number of MPs and paying compensation to conservationists.

A disturbing past

Social organizations have pointed out that they are out of touch with the real problems of Ecuadorians, and Laso has prioritized free trade agreements such as those recently signed with China in his government.

“A government that has never considered the need to build a state that protects rights and services,” Santiago Kawascue, a political science professor at SEK University in Quito, told AFP.

Married to María de Lourdes Elcivar and father of five, Laso has seen his health deteriorate throughout his tenure: surgeries for a cyst on his spine that forced him to use a cane, skin cancer and a broken leg.

Although the head of state never completed an economics degree, he is an experienced businessman who prides himself on having worked since the age of 15 to fund his studies at a Catholic school.

Then he “wrote stock prices on the board” on the stock market in his hometown of Guayaquil (southwest), as he said.

From a middle-class family, he is the last of 11 brothers and gained fame as a banker, rising to the position of president of the Banco de Guayaquil, one of the most important banks in Ecuador.

His opponents also claim him for his past as a businessman. At the end of the 1990s, he was Minister of State (super-minister) for the economy of former President Jamil Moawad (1998-2000), who was deposed in the midst of a national financial crisis, which caused the emigration of hundreds of thousands of Ecuadorians to the United States, Spain and Italy mainly.