the president of Ecuadorthe conservative Guillermo Lassowas saved this Tuesday from being dismissed by the National Assembly (Parliament), when a motion to remove him from power, promoted by the opposition parliamentary caucus of the Union for Hope (Unes), related to former President Rafael Correa, did not prosper.
The initiative to remove Lasso fell 12 votes short of achieving its goalsince it required the favorable vote of two thirds of Parliament, equivalent to 92 of the 137 assembly members, but the result of the final vote was 80 votes in favor against 48 against and 9 abstentions.
The motion was introduced by Assemblyman from Some Fernando Cedeño under the cause of “serious political crisis and internal commotion” in the context of protests against the Government due to the cost of living, led by the indigenous and peasant movement, which have already left six dead, including a soldier, and around of 400 wounded.
The vote took place after more than 18 hours of debate, divided into three days where 109 assembly members took part to express their position.
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The assembly members had to vote up to three times, since there was a request for rectification for the error in one vote and then a request for reconsideration presented by the ruling party to thus ratify the chamber’s denial of the motion.
The Unes bench and part of the parliamentary group of the indigenous and multinational Pachakutik movement voted in favor of the motion.political arm of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), the main promoter of the protests, which are now in their sixteenth day.
The ruling party voted against, which barely has 13 assembly members, but was supported by the Social Christian Party and by opposition forces such as the Democratic Leftwho preferred to vote in favor of stability.
THE “CROSS DEATH” WAS WANTED
The possible removal of Lasso by the assembly implied the so-called “cross death”, since it entails a call for early general elections with which the formation of the Legislative would also be renewed, where the opposition currently has a majority.
That is what the representatives of Correismo appealed to in the debate sessions, who defended the early elections as the solution to the crisis caused by the protests, which are now in their seventeenth consecutive day.
Hours earlier, during the last session of the debate in the Assembly, Lasso denounced in a video message an attempt by Correismo “to assault democracy, to take advantage of the chaos to destroy the institutional framework in Ecuador.”
PRESSURES UNDER INVESTIGATION
The president, who recently celebrated a year in power after winning the second round of the presidential elections against Correísta candidate Andrés Arauz, rejected “the threats, blackmail, persecution and intimidation of those who, with their vote in the National Assembly, are willing to defend institutionality and peace”.
Lasso thus referred to the complaints of alleged pressure on several assembly members who would vote against the motion, for which the Ecuadorian Attorney General’s Office has opened a preliminary investigation under the alleged crime of organized crime.
Among those investigated is an alleged official (advisor) of the Assembly, and so far several entities have been requested to send related information and take versions of those identified in the audios circulating on social networks, the Prosecutor’s Office reported in a statement.