The Ecuadorian government has accused Congress of destabilization

Then, this Saturday, the National Assembly of Ecuador will approve the Report of one of the commissions charged with investigating the allegations acts of corruption of the president’s inner circle Guillermo Lasso there proposed impeachment for censure of the presidentthe ruling party came out to harshly criticize the actions of lawmakers.

Possess President took to his Twitter account to state that the report – containing “unrelated thoughts on alleged acts of corruption in which they are trying to maliciously interfere”– lack of logical, probative and legal and published supportnext to the message, a map addressed to the State Attorney General, Diana Salazar, in which he puts himself at the disposal of Justice and asks that, when the time comes, “develop all the relevant investigations, with all the rigor and depth that the seriousness of these lies justifies”.

Thus, he hopes that the prosecution “faces the logical impossibility of proving a false fact Yet the legal impossibility of proving paternity by omission in crimes where this figure does not applyand that “beyond the inconsistent and unfounded nature of this document, I ensured that the entire executive branch responded quickly to any request for information that you demand regarding the investigation you have decided to open for this purpose, and mainly, but not exclusively, regarding any activity that the economist Danilo Carrera may have carried out”.

For his part, the Government Minister, Henry Cucalonrejected Parliament’s latest definition of the case, which he saw as “an obvious act of destabilization and not of control.”

“Many voices across the country have repudiated this report, including people who criticize the government”he clarified and regretted that “The Plenary of the National Assembly has once again let the country down by accepting an embarrassing report from the occasional committee which, in form, lacks legal validity and is not binding.”

In this sense, the Minister added that in the document – which he describes as “a tome that has neither head nor tail”– Evidence of illegal acts committed by the agent is not included and, therefore, “There is no merit to a trial”. However, the opposition claims that such evidence exists and that Lasso was aware of the operations and did not act to stop them.

In any case, Cucalón remained calm in his position and mentioned that the National Assembly will be the one to decide “whether to accept it or not and, even so, if this volume should be known and approved, it must be motivated and argued. in the presentation of a political trial.

The report in question, presented by the Occasional Specialized Commission for Truth, Justice and Anti-Corruptioninvestigate the case called “Meeting” -Also known as “Great Godfather”– and assesses the role of the president and his entourage in an alleged state-owned enterprise bribery regime. This would include names like Danilo Carrera, Lasso’s brother-in-law; Hernan Luque, former delegate of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Coordinating Company of Public Enterprises (EMCO); And Ruben CherresAnd man close to the ruling party which was also the subject of a police investigation for his alleged relationship with a drug ringalthough it has been archived.

Today’s session ended with the green light with 104 votes in favour, out of the 125 members of the assembly present, and only 18 were against and three abstained. The resolution was protected by numbers 1 and 2 of article 129 of the Constitution, which mentions the possibility of a political trial of the President for crimes “against the security of the state” the why “concussion, corruption, embezzlement (embezzlement) or illicit enrichment.” It also establishes that for this “the admissibility opinion of the Constitutional Court will be required, but prior criminal proceedings will not be necessary”.

Although this Saturday’s approval is only a suggestion there does not mean that the trial starts automaticallythis opens the way for a legislator to introduce Formal request of indictment. To do so, he needs the support of at least 46 other lawmakers.

The session began around 8:00 a.m. and lasted seven hours, during which the entire report was read and all 41 lawmakers spoke.

Already on Wednesday, the Commission had recommended to the plenary session of parliament that Lasso be questioned for the alleged acts of corruption for which he is being investigated, a position supported by six of the members and disputed by only one.

The progress of the Legislative Commission’s investigation comes at a time when the Lasso government is weakened after suffering a severe political blow on February 5, when it was defeated by the opposition in a referendum which the ruling party itself has promoted with key issues such as security, democracy and the environment.

(With information from EFE and AFP)

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