NewsLatin AmericaEcuador: Constitutional Court endorses impeachment of President Lasso

Ecuador: Constitutional Court endorses impeachment of President Lasso

The Constitutional Court of Ecuador notified on Wednesday that it admitted the request for impeachment against President Guillermo Lasso, raised by a majority of the opposition in the legislature to try to remove him alleging alleged crimes against state security and alleged corruption.

The constitutional guarantee does not imply the presidential dismissal, but rather gives way to the initiation of the impeachment process in the National Assembly, which must follow a process of presentation of arguments and add a majority in voting.

The Communications Secretariat of the Presidency, in a statement, said that despite the fact that the government does not agree with the decision of the Constitutional Court “we respect the opinion of admissibility of the impeachment trial”, which in no way validates the arguments raised by the legislature against the president.

He assured that the accusations of the Assembly have had neither legal nor political support.

The court, interpreter and guarantor of the country’s constitution, adopted the decision with the vote of six of the nine member magistrates. He received the request for prosecution from legislative benches chaired by the Union for Hope party, related to former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017).

In the ruling, the majority of that body decided to inadmit the two accusations related to the alleged crime of concussion but agreed to the request for impeachment related to embezzlement and argued that the Assembly has respected the principles of political legitimacy and due process.

In relation to the crime of embezzlement or embezzlement, the court determined that it falls within the admissibility assumptions.

There was no immediate reaction or statement from the government or President Lasso after the decision of the constitutional body was made known.

The initiative reached the court after going through several procedures and instances in the Assembly, among them, by a commission that reviewed a police investigation of alleged links between the president’s brother-in-law, Danilo Carrera, with public officials allegedly related to corruption networks. and drug trafficking.

The case for which Lasso will be brought to impeachment was made known through publications on the La Posta digital portal, which revealed a police investigation between June 2022 and January 2023, which was archived by judicial recommendation and by the Prosecutor’s Office due to the lack of of compelling elements.

However, the political opposition took the revelations to support the trial request, which came over the weekend at the hands of the Constitutional Court to declare whether it adhered to the Ecuadorian legal framework or not.

The president, in turn, sent the entity a 91-page defense document for that court to dismiss the request of the Legislature. He argued that no accusation was justified or proven and that the petition was filed after the deadline, as well as that the file was not complete either, which was not accepted.

With this decision by the constitutional magistrates, the impeachment process against Lasso returns to the Legislature. Within a maximum period of up to 45 days, they must submit the president to the prosecution process, which involves several previous steps.

To remove the president, a majority vote of 92 of the 137 assembly members is required. According to the opposition benches, there is a certain possibility due to the number of legislators who are against the president.

In a first attempt to impeach the president, the initiative did not garner enough votes. It was in June of last year, when Lasso had been in office for a year. The 92 votes necessary to approve the impeachment trial after the indigenous strike that led to violent protests for almost three weeks in which a reduction in fuel prices was demanded were not completed.

President Lasso, whose term would end in 2025, has a formula at his disposal to avoid impeachment. He could activate a constitutional figure of dissolution of the Legislative, called cross death, without further processing. That would allow him to rule by decree for about six months, before having to call an election.

In that period, he could run for re-election, an option that until now he has not officially raised and that has as a precedent the recent defeat at the polls in February of a popular consultation focused on security.

Source: VOA Español

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