Quito-. Ecuadorian lawmakers warned of the delay in impeachment proceedings against President Guillermo Lasso, who is still awaiting formal notification of the start of the proceedings.
In a letter addressed to Villavicencio, Assembly members Viviana Veloz, Mireya Pazmiño and Pedro Zapata, three of the prosecutors for the impeachment, urge him to notify the CEO “without conditions or delays”.
The intention to expand prosecutions against Lasso is evident, Veloz said on his Twitter account, dismissing Villavicencio’s usurpation of functions and powers.
For his part, Zapata said he didn’t understand what the President of the Commission was playing.
In the document, the plaintiffs accuse Villavicencio of giving them 72 hours to present the conclusions and evidence relating only to the allegations of embezzlement, that is, without mentioning what is related to the crime of bribery, which the Constitutional Court rejected.
They argue that the decision was not taken by the entire Commission, only by its President, and they assert that there are no rules limiting or delimiting the documentation supporting the political process.
For lawyer Marlon Martínez, Villavicencio is acting biased and trying to boycott the process, “but the final word is with the plenum of the assembly and they will determine” whether or not to depose the ruler.
The lawyer, in an interview offered to Radio Pichincha, asked the assembly to focus exclusively on the case of embezzlement approved by the Constitutional Court, in order to avoid problems or the declaration of unconstitutionality.
Authorization to prosecute Lasso for the crime of embezzlement (embezzlement) has been pending in the National Assembly for a week and no formal notification has yet been given to the accused.
The Oversight Commission has 10 days to brief the governor on the trial and also obtain the evidence and requests for appearances necessary for his defense.
Then, according to the schedule, lawmakers have another 10 days to evaluate those arguments, and then another 10 days to produce a report recommending or not recommending impeachment, or about a month total.
Regardless of the commission’s decision, a censure against the head of state requires 92 votes, which is two-thirds of the entire assembly, which consists of 137 parliamentarians.
Meanwhile, rumors have swirled about the government’s vote-buying plan to bail out Lasso, to which some groups such as Pachakutik and the Unión por la Esperanza have responded by pledging that all their members would support the ruler’s departure.