In a nearly 20-minute intervention, broadcast on a national network, the President insisted that his opponents wanted the process to “assassinate” his and his family’s reputation.
He reiterated that he respected, although he did not share, the decision of the Constitutional Court, an institution that the previous day had given the legislature the green light to continue the political persecution.
The head of the Ecuadorian executive assured that there was no evidence of misappropriation of public funds against him, since the contract on which the allegation is based was signed in 2018 before he became president, and according to him the prosecutor did not even conduct an investigation from it Reason initiated.
Lasso thus referred to allegations of irregularities in the hiring of ships for the transport of crude oil by the public company Flota Petrolera Ecuatoriana (Flopec).
However, he failed to mention that the complaint argues how Flopec’s boss, Johnny Estupiñán, who was already president, alerted him to the illegal acts and did nothing about them.
For Lasso, the impeachment process is based on fabricated evidence and pointed out that the court judges had been pressured not only because of the acts of corruption, alluding to the sit-ins and protests by social organizations in favor of their resignation from power, but also because of the state task .
He also believed that “there are MPs desperate for power, without borders and outside of the times established by democracy”.
In his lengthy speech, Lasso did not even hint that he might use the “cross death” tool to dissolve the National Assembly, nor did he explain how he would undertake its defense.
This Friday, the Legislative Administration Council (CAL) will meet to begin processing the impeachment petition, but that will be a formal meeting as those who have to deal with the case are the members of the Oversight Commission.
This parliamentary table has 30 days to issue a report recommending whether or not to impeach the president, but it is up to the plenary session of the National Assembly to decide on the chief executive’s dismissal.
His early resignation from power would need the support of 92 MPs out of a total of 137, and if successful, Vice President Alfredo Borrero would take over for the remainder of the current term, that is, until 2025.
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