The impeachment trial against Guillermo Lasso moves forward: what the Ecuadorian president is accused of | The court gave its green light on Wednesday

Ecuador’s Constitutional Court has decided to proceed with criminal proceedings against President Guillermo Lasso.. During an extraordinary session, the nine magistrates who make up the Supreme Court led to the Assembly’s request by six votes in favor and three against.

The impeachment against Lasso was encouraged by the opposition majority led by the former president Rafael Correa in the National Assembly, and refers to alleged offenses against public administration, such as fraud or embezzlement. Now the idea is to gather testimony through a congressional oversight committee and let Lasso exercise his right to a defense.

“In the analysis of the practice, the application presented to the National Assembly and the procedure followed, the principles of political legitimacy and due process were respected,” the court noted in its judgment. The High Court established the count of the charge as “lack of immediacy in execution”, although that did not affect the verdict.

“The plenary decided to plead guilty to two charges relating to the offense of embezzlement and to plead guilty to a charge relating to corruption.“, warns the report published by the court. The court does not accept other crimes condemned by the legislature. The court considers that there are no arguments to accuse the president of Ecuador with the crime of concussion (requiring gifts or contributions to his public office while an official is in use).

Turn of the National Assembly

The head of state can only be impeached if the 137-member assembly gets 92 votes., equal to two-thirds of the camera, if they are not received, the process is archived. In addition, legislative action may include a request for the Prosecutor’s Office and other state control bodies to investigate complaints against the President and include them in a possible instruction of the Public Ministry.

The Congress, though dissolved with an opposition majority, returned to the charge against Lasso after the publication of a report by digital media La Posta. The corruption allegations system was used to allocate public positions in government agencies headed by Danilo Carrera, Lasso’s brother-in-law. No government posts. Hernán Luque, a former representative of the chairman on the board of the Public Enterprises Coordinating Company, and Ruben Serres, a businessman close to Carrera and investigated by the prosecutor’s office for drug trafficking, are implicated in the case.

“Bye William!”

Although rejecting the court’s ruling, the Ecuadorian government said it respected it. “This decision does not in any way invalidate the arguments raised in the Assembly against the President,” the government’s communications headquarters said in a statement. Lasso adamantly denies this and accuses the opposition of plotting a “parliamentary conspiracy” against him.He said this in his speech at the Ibero-American Summit in Santo Domingo on Saturday.

For his part, former President Rafael Correa The Constitutional Court’s decision was welcomed. “Bye William! You are such a mean and basic person who should never have been president. “Now you will go to the dustbin of history along with your friend (former president) Lenin Moreno with many merits,” the former president wrote on his Twitter account.

Assemblywoman Viviana Veloz, who joined 58 legislators in demanding an investigation, said “Lasso will be politically impeached and answer for his atrocities and incompetence in the Legislature.” Lawmakers say the 67-year-old president is in charge of “protecting the links of a criminal structure in public institutions.”

What happens if you remove the lasso?

In June 2022, Lasso, amid protests by the domestic movement against his government’s economic policy and the high cost of living, had already saved a similar situation by a few votes, when the opposition raised a motion to impeach the president. did not prosper. If this new initiative is successful, Vice President Alfredo Borrero’s line of succession is one of the possibilities. however, The Ecuadorian press did not rule out the possibility of the president using a resource called “cross death”..

about this Article 148 of the Constitution It allows the president to dissolve the assembly and hold general elections with the approval of the court. This can only be done in the presence of three reasons: the legislature adopts functions that do not belong to it, it hinders the progress of the development program (general policy guide established by the Constitution) and during political events and institutional crisis.