The President Guillermo Lasso did not hesitate to react and described as “injustice” the decision of the National Assembly in granting amnesty to 268 people, including indigenous people and activists, prosecuted for participating in social protests or defending the rights of nature. This was achieved in a long plenary session with 99 affirmative votes, 16 negative and 10 abstentions.
Of the total number of people granted amnesty, 60 belong to the case “prosecuted for exercising the right to resistance and social protest of October 2019”another 153 are “defenders of community territories”, 12 to of “indigenous administration of justice”, and another 43 are nature activists.
“The legitimate right to protest cannot affect others. The National Assembly committed an act of injustice. They forgot Quito in flames, families that lost businesses, journalists attacked, people violated. I support the people of Quito and the public force in the face of the decision”.
President Guillermo Lasso on Twitter
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According to the Assembly, this was given following knowing the individual executive records of the applicants, the international normative basis of the universal human rights system, the constitutional, legal and regulatory framework, as well as the competence of the Legislature to grant amnesties.
The plenary session began on Wednesday night and lasted until this morning, the Parliament concluded with the review of the cases and the vote.
“These results will reconcile the country. We have worked for the unity that our Ecuador expected so much, I am very happy that our companions, the popular fighters, defenders of human rights, water and nature and all their families today regain their freedom “said the president of Parliament, Guadalupe Llori.
According to Llori, this decision has also made it possible to achieve “justice in the country and the long-awaited reconciliation and national unity.”
Leonidas Iza, prosecuted for the October 2019 protests once morest economic measures applied by the then ruler Lenín Moreno (2017-2021), considered amnesty “an achievement” promoted “from Conaie together with various social organizations for justice for rights defenders”, wrote on his Twitter account.
The #AmnistiaYa It is an achievement that we promote from CONAIE together with various social organizations for justice for human rights defenders.
With this, the social struggle, the right to resistance and democracy are vindicated.
The fight once morest neoliberalism continues. pic.twitter.com/PKVbuSZPag
– Leonidas Iza Salazar Official (@LeonidasIzaSal1) March 10, 2022
Prefect Pabón, who uses an electronic shackle for judicial surveillance, also spoke and thanked those who voted for “to put an end to a disastrous practice such as political persecution”.
I want to thank the courage of the @AsambleaEcuador and of those who voted in favor of putting an end to a disastrous practice such as political persecution through the use of justice, as well as their commitment to the ???????? to close the crack that prevents us from reconciling (1/2) pic.twitter.com/KSTomG6yuU
– Paola Pabón (@PaolaPabonC) March 10, 2022
With EFE data