Quito, November 20 (Prensa Latina) The National Assembly of Ecuador could reopen the request for amnesty for former Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño, who lives as a refugee in Mexico, as detailed today by the President of the Commission for Constitutional Guarantees, Paola Cabezas.
Yes, there is an amnesty that Patiño took advantage of. It is about to be dealt with and requires a whole process within the Commission, but in the long term it goes to the plenary session of the National Assembly and there we will see whether or not there are votes for it and for the whole amnesty requests that come to us came, he said. heads.
Last January, Wilma Salgado, the former head of the defunct Deposit Insurance Agency (AGD), presented the proposal to Parliament on behalf of the Jubilee 2000 collective. However, the process did not progress despite being qualified by the Legislative Administrative Council (CAL).
In the document, Jubilee 2000 invoked Article 120 of the Constitution, which establishes the powers of the legislature “to grant amnesties for political crimes and pardons on humanitarian grounds, with the consent of two-thirds of its members.”
Patiño, another victim of political persecution against leaders of the Citizen Revolution (RC), was convicted of the alleged crime of incitement arising from the October 2019 protests and was politically persecuted during the government of Lenín Moreno.
According to the amnesty request, the criminal proceedings against the former minister during the government of Rafael Correa violated his rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and were aimed at silencing voices opposed to then-President Moreno.
In this way, the motion says, the right of every person to have their own political beliefs and to express them in accordance with national and international standards is violated.
npg/nta