The National Assembly (Parliament) of Ecuador this Thursday declared the former president responsible for the crime of embezzlement (embezzlement) Guillermo Lasso (2021-2023) in the final vote of the impeachment trial that the then president interrupted six months ago by dissolving the chamber and forcing the calling of extraordinary general elections.
After being reinstated after the elections, the Assembly continued with the impeachment trial despite the fact that there was no longer an option to remove Lasso, who left office a week ago to his successor, Daniel Noboathe young 35-year-old businessman who won the presidential elections derived from the ‘crossed death’ with which he avoided his possible dismissal.
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The Ecuadorian Legislature considered the accusation of embezzlement against Lasso to be founded with 116 votes in favor, one against and seven abstentions, decision that was endorsed in a second reconsideration vote.
This vote culminates a long political trial with which the opposition sought to remove Lasso from power in this process undertaken by the opposition, led by Correismo and the conservative Social Christian Party (PSC).
These two forces promoted the impeachment against Lasso after it came to light an alleged corruption plot in public companies apparently headed by his brother-in-lawbusinessman Danilo Carrera, and with one of its members with alleged links to a drug trafficking mafia.
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Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso arrives at the Capitol in Washington, DC, on November 2, 2023. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)
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However, the Constitutional Court removed this case from the accusation in which an alleged crime of concussion was charged and only left that of embezzlement, referring to some contracts signed by the state oil fleet that allegedly caused “damage to the State in favor of third parties”, according to the resolution approved by the Assembly.
The new composition of the Assembly after the elections once again left Correismo and the PSC as two dominant forces in the chamber and resumed the impeachment trial of Lasso, who before the dissolution of the Legislative It had a very minority group and now it does not have any representative of his party I CREATE.
The resolution approved by the plenary session of the Ecuadorian Assembly was taken after 67 assembly members intervened, of which 39 intervened on May 16, before the application of the ‘crossed death’, and 27 between this Wednesday and Thursday, after the resumption of the session.
The document that put Correísta assemblywoman Viviana Veloz to the vote rejected “former President Lasso’s actions of using the figure of ‘crossed death’ during the impeachment process to evade his political responsibility and possible censorship and dismissal; which constitutes a disastrous precedent against democracy.”
Likewise, he ordered to notify the decision immediately to the former president and also to the Prosecutor’s Office and the Comptroller’s Office (Court of Accounts) “so that within the framework of their powers they begin the respective investigation and control processes, since the facts that are the subject of “This political accusation suggests the commission of a criminal offense.”
:quality(75)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/elcomercio/f166835a-1a07-4080-9c33-5e7ee83f5eab.png "Ecuador: National Assembly names former President Lasso as responsible for the crime of embezzlement 1")
