With no support in the Legislature and on the brink of impeachment in Congress over alleged corruption, the President preferred to forestall Congress and dissolve it, nipping in the bud the plans of his greatest enemy: the powerful Correísmo, forces akin to The Socialist President Rafael Correa (2007-2017) provided the majority in the chamber.
In doing so, he also set an expiration date for his government, which will remain in place while Ecuador elects a new president in a three-month period.
The opposition congress “has as its political project the destabilization of government, democracy and the state,” said Lasso, 67, as he ordered its dissolution in a trial known as “cross death.”
Conservative but primarily anti-Correista, the former banker took office in May 2021 for four years after two electoral defeats.
Then he endorsed the phrase: “Those who persevere will achieve”.
And the third time was the allure for the Opus Dei member who boasts of having achieved a massive vaccination against Covid-19 in record time.
Lasso came to power with a message of change, but quickly fell out of favor: more than a dozen prison massacres, rising insecurity and drug trafficking, and violent social protests over the high cost of living put the noose around his neck.
However, in June last year he succeeded in a first attempt by the National Assembly to remove him amid demonstrations by tribal peoples that left six dead.
dive
Lasso took office with a refreshed image and a message of renewal after the decade of “21st Century Socialism” promoted by Correa, who at the end of his tenure moved to Belgium, where he remains based at the asylum. The left was popular throughout his tenure and eventually became embroiled in corruption scandals.
Already in office, Lasso’s personal figure resembled that of a formal, stiff ex-banker. Of course, he maintained his momentum against the Correísmo, which in turn got him into trouble in the impeachment trial, which was unsuccessful.
In his two years in office, the president has been losing “legitimacy” at an accelerating rate, to the point that “nine out of ten Ecuadorians don’t believe him and he is suspected of corruption,” said Paulina Recalde, the pollster’s head. said AFP. opinion profiles.
The president’s credibility dropped from 70% at the beginning of his administration to 10%.
The fall was evident when he called a referendum in February to force extradition to fight crime.
Voters rejected this and seven other proposals on issues such as reducing the number of MPs and paying compensation to environmentalists.
A past that disturbs
Social organizations point out that Lasso is far removed from the real problems of Ecuadorians and has prioritized free trade agreements like the one recently signed with China in his government.
It is “a government that has never considered the need to build a state that protects rights and services,” Santiago Cahuasquí, a political scientist at Quito’s SEK University, told AFP.
Lasso, married to María de Lourdes Alcívar and father of five children, saw his health deteriorate during 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 his business degree, he is a seasoned businessman who prides himself on having worked to pay for his studies at a Catholic school since he was 15.
Then he “wrote the stock prices on a slate” at the stock exchange in his hometown of Guayaquil (southwest), he says.
Coming from a middle-class family, he is the last of eleven siblings and rose to fame as a banker who rose to become president of the Banco de Guayaquil, one of the most important in Ecuador.
His opponents also claim him for his past as a businessman. In the late 1990s, he was Secretary of State (Super Minister) for Economy to former President Jamil Mahuad (1998–2000), who was overthrown amid a national financial crisis that led to the emigration of hundreds of thousands of Ecuadorians, mainly to the United States, Spain and Italy.