Quito (EFE).- Ecuador keeps its sights set on Parliament, which must define tomorrow, Tuesday, whether or not to advance the political trial of censorship that is being processed against the head of state, the conservative Guillermo Lasso, over alleged embezzlement.
On Sunday, the head of the National Assembly (Parliament), Virgilio Saquicela, called a plenary session for 10:45 local time (15:45 GMT) tomorrow, after the Legislative Oversight Commission failed to approve a report that recommended the file of the trial.
Saquicela convened the session to review some memoranda sent by the aforementioned Commission, in which he confirms that the report he prepared on the trial process was not approved.
The head of the Legislature has explained that article 142 of the Organic Law of the Legislative Function will be applied, which entrusts to the plenary session of the Assembly the knowledge of a law or a parliamentary procedure that could not be resolved by the legislative commissions.
Thus, as the Oversight Commission failed to approve the draft of the report on Saturday, the 137 legislators must decide whether to move forward or not.
To move forward with the censorship trial, 70 votes are needed, a figure that political analyst César Ulloa believes the opposition could achieve.
He opined that tomorrow the National Assembly could be unaware that four of the nine members of the Oversight Commission present a report in which they state “that there is no proven cause in matters of embezzlement.”
“Tomorrow there will be votes” to continue the trial, Ulloa told EFE, speculating that, however, in the next instance, in which Lasso must appear, the opposition would not achieve the 92 votes necessary for dismissal.
He bases his argument on the movements within the opposition parties: recent disaffiliations in the Social Cristiano party, internal differences in the Pachakitik movement and divisions in the Democratic Left.
“It gives me the feeling that 92 votes are not reached. In other words, they are going to give way to the trial, which does not mean, however, that there are votes for the removal of the president, ”he said.
Peculation?
The opposition maintains that Lasso was aware of a contract harmful to the State on the transportation of crude oil, signed between the state company Flota Petrolera Ecuatoriana (Flopec) and the private firm Amazonas Tanker, and that he did not prevent the alleged irregularities once he was already president. .
Instead, the president’s defense argues that the contracts were signed under the previous administration of former President Lenín Moreno (2017-2021) and that under Lasso’s mandate a renewal was made that included a series of recommendations from the Comptroller’s Office (Tribunal de Cuentas ) to improve conditions for the state.
Uncertainty
While the gaze is set on the possible impeachment of Lasso, the country “continues in complete uncertainty” and overwhelmed by insecurity, Ulloa commented.
The situation also affects the country in economic matters because “uncertainty finally drives away international markets and also puts us in a very complex position with multilateral credit institutions, which need a minimum certainty to disburse resources,” he said.
“We are going through a very complex situation,” he stressed, adding that “if the president is saved once again, his image may be strengthened but with the requirement that there be some changes, especially in the social area.”