The future of the President of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, is in the hands of the National Assembly (Parliament), which must process the impeachment motion approved by the Constitutional Court the day before.Read more
This judiciary dismissed the concussion allegations against the President and allowed a motion to charge him with the crime of political embezzlement.
The Presidency’s General Secretariat for Communications issued a statement saying that it respects the Court’s decision, although it does not agree with it, and ensures that the Assembly’s approach has never had and never will have legal or political support.
For their part, legislators and social organizations supported the verdict in favor of the process, which could bring forward the end of the mandate of Lasso, who is the first head of state in Ecuador’s democratic history to face such a situation.
This process is a symbol of a desperate and hopeless country, of thousands unemployed and millions of Ecuadorians who have stopped believing in democracy, said Andean MP Virgilio Hernández.
The Citizens’ Revolutionary Movement stressed that impeachment was a democratic expression in the face of a devastated country and condemned “Today hope is reborn”.
MP Viviana Veloz, one of the trial lawyers, in charge of the investigation, said the President must now answer for his terror and incompetence. “We could not turn our backs on the Ecuadorian people,” he added.
“That the court gave in to the ruler’s trial shows that there was always motivation and support to raise it. Now the process is just beginning. May the law, the people’s aspirations and the Constitution triumph,” wrote MP Paola Cabezas.
The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), which led a protest Tuesday in support of Lasso’s ouster, claimed the political process was “a popular outcry.”
For the country’s largest organization of indigenous peoples, the chairman of the board must be removed for embezzlement, but also because of his incompetence to govern. The next step in processing the constitutional instrument lies with the Supervisory Commission, which has 30 days to decide whether to recommend the procedure or not.
Once the report is ready, the head of the legislature will convene the plenary to carry out the prosecution, with the president having the right to defend himself and approve his dismissal, the vote of 92 deputies out of a total of 137 must be counted.