The National Assembly (Parliament) of Ecuador installed this Saturday the session to deal, as a single point, the request for removal of President Guillermo Lasso, who on Friday denounced an attempted coup once morest him.
Session was installed virtually due to the state of emergency decreed the country and was attended by 135 assembly members, the legal secretary of the Presidency, Fabián Pozo, and was chaired by the head of the Legislature, Virgilio Saquicela.
The request for the removal of Lasso was made by assembly members close to former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017), under the cause of serious internal commotion due to the wave of protests that hit Ecuador, characterized by the closure of highways and the blocking of routes.
PARLIAMENT HAS THREE DAYS TO VOTE ON CONTINUITY
The organic law of the Assembly requires that the session to debate the presidential impeachment is convened in less than 24 hours from the presentation of the request and, at the appointment, President Lasso was also summoned to present his arguments, although he delegated his intervention to Fabián Pozo.
After the discussion, the Parliament has 72 hours to vote on the continuity of the president, for which a two-thirds majority is required equivalent to 92 of the 137 assembly members.
The session took place on the thirteenth day of mobilizations convened by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) and was installed hours following the Government met with its president, Leonidas Iza, and other indigenous leaders, in a first approach convened by Saquicela, who highlighted the willingness of the parties to dialogue.
“I believe that this road will prosper and I believe that the parties are predisposed to this dialogue, yielding from part to partwithout conditions but reaching specific agreements,” he said, expressing his hope that tomorrow a first dialogue table can be set up.
LASSO REPEALED STATE OF EXCEPTION
While the session to analyze his dismissal was taking place, and following the first approach, Guillermo Lasso repealed the state of exception due to serious internal commotion, decreed in six provinces of the twenty-four of the country in the framework of indigenous-led protests once morest the high cost of living and the government’s economic policies.
With the signing of decree 461 the measure was terminated decreed by the president on Saturday June 18, which included the provinces of Chimborazo, Tungurahua, Cotopaxi, Pichincha, Pastaza and Imbabura, where the protests led by Conaie had been concentrated.
With that decision, the Government “ratifies the willingness to guarantee the creation of spaces for peace in which Ecuadorians can gradually resume their activities,” said the General Secretariat of Communication of the Presidency.
The repeal of the decree by which the state of emergency was declared It was one of Conaie’s requests to open up to dialogue.
The indigenous movement demands the fulfillment of ten demands, among them that fuel prices be reduced and frozen, that the prices of basic necessities be controlled, that state companies are not privatized and that oil and mining activity in the Amazon not be expanded.
The demonstrations, which began on June 13, have registered violent episodes that have left five dead and more than 200 injured so far, between the protesters and the security forces.
