Quito, (EFE).- The National Assembly of Ecuador approved this Saturday the Report of a Commission, which investigates alleged acts of corruption involving a circle close to the ruler Guillermo Lasso, and which recommended the impeachment of the president for censorship.
A total of 104 of the 125 assembly members present at the session approved the report, 18 voted against and three abstained in the session that had as its exclusive theme the debate on the report of the Occasional Specialized Commission for Truth, Justice and Struggle against corruption in the case called “Encuentro”, also known as “The Great Godfather”.
The vote opens the way for a legislator to formally submit the request for impeachment, for which it requires the support of at least 46 legislators.
The opinion of the sessions
The session this Saturday, which began around 08:00 local time (13:00 GMT), ended some seven hours later after the initial reading of the report for two hours and the intervention of 41 legislators, in the remaining five.
Last Wednesday, with six votes in favor of the motion and one against, the Commission recommended that the plenary session of the National Assembly (Parliament) question Lasso for the alleged acts of corruption investigated.
These acts revolve around an alleged plot of corruption in public companies where the businessmen Danilo Carrera, brother-in-law of the president, and Rubén Cherres, a man close to the ruling party who was also the subject of a police investigation for his alleged relationship with a network of drug trafficking, which was archived.
The resolution was based on numerals 1 and 2 of article 129 of the Constitution, on the possibility of a political trial of the President for crimes “against the security of the State” or for “concussion, bribery, embezzlement (embezzlement) or illicit enrichment” .
That article also establishes that, “to initiate the impeachment trial, the admissibility ruling of the Constitutional Court will be required, but prior criminal prosecution will not be necessary.”
Government criticizes report
The Minister of Government (Politics), Henry Cucalón, has criticized the report of the Commission that is investigating the case and has said that even opposition analysts have rejected it.
“Many voices throughout the country have repudiated this report, including people who are critical of the government,” said Cucalón, who last Wednesday described the document as a “tome” “that has neither head nor tail. For me without any legal value, not binding.
However, he admitted that the National Assembly “may accept it or not and even so, if that tome were to be known and approved, it must be motivated and argued in the presentation of an impeachment trial.”
The pronouncement of the Legislative Commission came at a time when the Government appears weakened after having suffered a severe political blow on February 5, when it was defeated by the opposition in a referendum that the ruling party promoted on issues such as security, democracy and environment, among others.