Ecuador: Guillermo Lasso announces a referendum on security, justice and the environment

First modification: 09/13/2022 – 13:57

There are eight questions that the Ecuadorian government will ask citizens. Guillermo Lasso, who in April had announced his intentions to carry out a popular consultation, detailed the eight questions that were delivered to the Constitutional Courtwhich has 20 days to validate them.

Among other questions are “Do you agree with allowing the complementary support of the Armed Forces in the functions of the National Police to combat organized crime, amending the Constitution in accordance with the provisions of annex 1?” and “Are you in agreement with reducing the number of assembly members?”, then defining criteria for your election.

“ANDhe issue of insecurity will continue to be neglected”

“The Government opts for a desperate and poorly processed way to have oxygen, placing some issues that concern or annoy the population. In any case, the way of reading politics is very bad and very erratic”, estimates political analyst Andrés Chiriboga.

“For example, in the security questions, it seems to me that some pretty terrible scenarios are opening up for Lasso and for the country. Let’s assume that the constitutional control passes and the citizens vote in favor of Lasso’s questions, what is going to happen? If no real action is taken against insecurity, in the short term it will be revealed that the referendum was a farce, that it was useless. From Lasso’s point of view, an opinion contrary to the one he already has will come to him. Keep in mind that Lasso currently only has 17% of people who take his word for it. And of course, who is the big loser? Will it be the country? Because as an excuse for the consultation, the issue of insecurity will continue to be neglected. On the other hand, the other scenario is that the citizens do not approve the questions and in that case Lasso’s move will not have been of any use, ”Chiriboga details.

“We do not have the annexes”

The final two questions of the consultation are dedicated to the environment: “Do you agree with the incorporation of a water protection subsystem to the National System of Protected Areas, amending the Constitution in accordance with Annex 7?” and “Do you agree that individuals, communities, towns and nationalities can be beneficiaries of compensation duly regularized by the State, for their support for the generation of environmental services, amending the Constitution in accordance with annex 8?” .

“We see this with good eyes. However, there are two quite serious problems. The first is the issue of participation: we have been asking for the process of constructing these questions to be made public so that it is participatory, and it has not been. And second, we don’t have the annexes. So they leave us in a rather paralyzed situation, right? Because we cannot have an idea of ​​the dimension of what the President of the Republic is proposing”, comments Natalia Greene, vice president of the Ecuadorian Coordinator of Organizations for the Defense of Nature and the Environment (CEDENMA), which for three decades brings together some 60 environmental organizations in the country.

And it is that at the end of each question revealed this Monday by Lasso, an annex number is mentioned with which the Constitution would be amended if the consultation is approved.