Next Friday, March 10, 2023 -one day after the National Assembly meets in person in Portoviejo (Manabí)- the assemblywoman Viviana Veloz, from the Correísta union Unión por la Esperanza (UNES), and president of the occasional commission that recommended to the Plenary the political trial of the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, would be in charge of presenting the text for the interpellation to the head of State. The document must be accompanied by 46 supporting signatures.
In statements to the media, Veloz commented that they also have the support of other banks.
Diego Esparza, from the ranks of the Ecuadorian Socialist Party (PSE), and a colleague of Veloz’s on the occasional commission, knows that the UNES bench is meeting and analyzing (the report).
“They would have enough signatures to be able to present them without the need for other benches or other assembly members,” Esparza said. Correísmo in the Assembly has 47 seats.
The legislator recalled that on March 4, 2023, when the trial recommendation was approved with 104 votes in the plenary session, “she (Viviana Veloz) said that she could be, if her bench considers it so, one of the questioners, and the same was pointed out by Mireya Pazmiño (Pachakutik)”.
there were no new meetings
Esparza pointed out that after Saturday’s session, a new meeting of the occasional commission was not ruled out, also made up of Pedro Zapata, from the Social Christian Party (PSC), Rodrigo Fajardo, from the Democratic Left (ID), Mireya Pazmiño, from Pachakutik (PK ) and, Augusto Guamán (independent),
“We have been pending all this time, but we have not met, nor has it been mentioned at all who the interpellants could be,” he said.
In any case, this assemblyman hopes that the report will accept the recommandments that the commission argued and whose grounds for interpellation appear in article 129, numerals 1 and 2 of the Constitution referring to crimes against State security, and crimes of extortion, bribery, embezzlement or illicit enrichment, respectively, and in accordance with articles 23, 28, 42 and 422 of the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code (COIP).
Esparza suggested that the moment they officially constitute themselves as interpellants and begin to prepare the report, consolidate the arguments based on a specific article in a text, they will give “strength to the content, the evidence, the complaint, and the impeachment.” ”.
The investigation of the so-called ‘The Great Godfather’ case revolved around a complaint released on January 9, 2023 by the digital media La Posta about an alleged network of corruption in public companies linked to the electricity sector and that would be headed by Danilo Carrera, brother-in-law of the head of state.
Sectors of the ID and Pachakutik move away from a trial
In Parliament there are blocs and legislators who are beginning to distance themselves from the possibility of impeaching the President of the Republic. This despite the fact that in the session of March 4, 2023 they voted in favor of the report that recommended questioning Lasso.
This March 7th, Jessica Castle (Clothesline).) said that, together with the Democratic Left, they are analyzing whether the trial is viable and affirmed that the grounds that are intended to be included in the commission’s report are neither clear nor evident to punish the President. “The country has to know that, we cannot sanction something that is not coherent under a political show,” he said.
The ID goes along the same line. Alejandro Jaramillo, assembly member of this party said that I would not support the judgment. He clarified that in the March 4 session he voted in favor of the report in the context of urging the President of the Republic to rectify it. “The occasional commission of correístas and social Christians made the Assembly lose 40 days to end up presenting a report that does not have enough elements; a patojo report, ”he said.
Information omitted from the report
According to Jaramillo, in the document it is not determined what the participation of the President is Lasso with strategic sectors and public companies.
He announced that in the coming days he will file a complaint with the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) with information that would not have included the occasional commission and that would involve former presidents Rafael Correa and Lenín Moreno. “Corruption is entrenched in public companies, not only in this government, but in previous ones,” he said.
At the same time, Rodrigo Fajardo, representative of the ID in the occasional commission who recommended questioning Lasso, dismissed Alejandro Jaramillo’s version and said that he does not represent the voice of the party because he was expelled from the bench.
“Which legislators are going to lend themselves to the Constitutional Court to analyze something as sad as the joke that they tried to approve as a report?”concluded Juan Fernando Flores, head of the official bench.