The petition for the dismissal was presented under the cause of serious internal commotion due to the demonstrations against the high cost of living and the economic policies of the Executive, which are fifteen days old this Monday.
The National Assembly (Parliament) of Ecuador resumes tomorrow, Tuesday, the request for the impeachment of the president Guillermo Lasso, who last Friday denounced a coup attempt against him.
A source from the Assembly confirmed that the session is scheduled for tomorrow, after it was suspended on Sunday, after the intervention of several legislators.
In the session that was installed on Saturday, several assembly members already presented their points of view and in it, the legal secretary of the Presidency, Fabián Pozo, read a document on behalf of the head of state.
In the text it was called “absolute irresponsibility” with citizens the request presented in Parliament by legislators related to former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017).
The Union for Hope caucus (Some), related to Correa, invoked number 2 of article 130 of the Constitution, on the possibility of dismissal in case of “serious political crisis and internal commotion.”
In the document read by Pozo, Lasso pointed out that the Assembly “has the constitutional obligation to prove and justify that two different and simultaneous conditions have occurred to proceed with the dismissal.”
On her side, the opposition Assemblywoman Pierina Correa considered that Lasso has mocked the Assembly. This, by not attending the session to present the respective exculpatory evidence.
For Pierina Correa, the document read by Pozo “is full of lies, fallacies and new mockery not only of the Assembly but of the entire Ecuadorian people.”
Opposed to Lasso’s impeachment in Ecuador
The organic law of the Assembly requires that the session to debate the presidential removal be convened in less than 24 hours. The above, from the presentation of the request.
After the debate, Parliament has 72 hours to vote on the continuation of the president, for which a two-thirds majority is required, equivalent to 92 of the 137 assembly members.
In the initial session, Assemblyman Marlon Cadena, of the Democratic Left (ID), rejected the violence unleashed in the demonstrations.
“It is not by chance -he said- that the legitimate mobilized have come from the most deprived areas of the country. Millions of Ecuadorians who were left in an Ecuador reduced to oppression are housed here,” she said.
And after pointing out that they have no commitment to any government, he assured that they will not support “those who manipulate fair protest and who pretend to be indigenists, defenders of social fighters and defenders of nature at their convenience.”
On his side, legislator Esteban Torres, of the Social Christian Party, commented that it is not decided whether a president stays or leaves, but that “institutions, public order and respect for the rights of Ecuadorians are at stake.”