Ecuador: Lasso will not appear before the commission that carries out the first stage of impeachment

The president of Ecuador, the conservative William Lassowill not appear in principle before the Oversight Commission of the National Assembly (Parliament) that carries out the first stage of the political trial of the president, where he is summoned on Wednesday on the last day of statements.

This was announced this Monday to journalists by the legal secretary of the Presidency of Ecuador, John Paul Ortiz, noting that, in principle, the presence of Lasso in the process It will only be given if the second and last stage is reachedwhen you have to make your defense argument before the plenary session of the Chamber.

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However, Ortiz indicated that the president has the last word on the possibility of appearing before the Oversight Commission, but that in principle it has been decided that the presentation be made by the president’s lawyer, Edgar Neira.

The impeachment was raised by the opposition, which has a majority in the Assembly, for the alleged crimes of concussion for an alleged corruption plot in public companies and for embezzlement (embezzlement) due to alleged irregularities in a contract between the state oil fleet Flopec and the company Amazonas Tankers.

However, after reviewing the accusation documents, the Constitutional Court left out the crime of extortion due to lack of support and only allowed the impeachment trial to be carried out for the crime of embezzlement.

Now the Oversight Commission must make a report under these premises and for this it is in the phase of receiving evidence and witness statements.

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President Guillermo Lasso during his inauguration in the National Assembly of Ecuador, on May 24, 2021. (Photo by the National Assembly of Ecuador / AFP). (-/)

Satisfied with defense

In this sense, Ortiz considered that the president’s defense has managed to dismantle the arguments of the accusation and reliably demonstrate that Lasso has not generated any irregularity in the case of Flopec.

The legal secretary of the Presidency insisted that the aforementioned contracts were signed in 2018 and 2020 by the previous administration of the president Lenin Moreno (2017-2021) and rejected opposition claims that the current Lasso management did nothing about those contracts.

According to Ortiz, with Lasso in power, an instruction was given to file a complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office and the Comptroller’s Office (Court of Accounts) was also requested to carry out an analysis to check if there was any responsibility, and based on this, issued a report with 13 recommendations accepted by the Executive.

Likewise, he denied that there has been any damage to the State since this contract has generated a benefit of 32 million dollars, while Flopec recorded a surplus of 180 million dollars.

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Follow-up requested to the constitutional court

The legal secretary of the Presidency recalled that they have requested the Constitutional Court to follow up on the impeachment process to determine that it conforms to the parameters of its ruling.

He also urged members of the Assembly to vote based on the arguments presented and not vote only for political calculation.

In the event that the impeachment proceeds to the plenary session of the Assembly 92 votes are required to approve the removal of the president, equivalent to two thirds of the Chamber.

Before reaching this scenario, Lasso has not ruled out resorting to the so-called “cross death”, a constitutional figure that allows the head of state to dissolve the Assembly and call early general elections within a year where the Executive would govern and legislate through decrees.

Source: Elcomercio