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The Assemblywoman of the left-wing indigenous movement Pachakutik, Mireya Pazmiño, told RFI that the pressure exerted by various sectors on Lasso will allow the necessary votes to be gathered this Tuesday in Congress for the censorship and dismissal of the Ecuadorian president. The unpopular Ecuadorian president is once again between his back and the wall.
The president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, faces a second attempt on Tuesday by the opposition Congress to remove him, amid growing unpopularity and inability to govern the country. The process, which will begin around 10:00 a.m. local time (3:00 p.m. GMT) and which could take several days, awakens the ghosts of the political instability that Ecuador between 1997 and 2005, when three rulers who emerged from the polls were overthrown.
“I am very convinced that with the pressure exerted by social organizations, the Ecuadorian people, the peasant sector, farmers and even businessmen, the assembly members will become aware of the situation. I am sure that there will be the necessary votes to censorship and removal,” he told RFI Mireya Pazmiño, assembly member of the Pachakutik movement.
Adding up its allies, the ruling party has just 25 legislators versus 49 from Correísmo. And Lasso will not measure forces only with that current but also with the leftist Pachakutik, the political arm of the powerful indigenous sector and the second force in the Legislative with some twenty seats.
The assembly member of that party, Mireya Pazmiño, downplays Lasso’s departure and reflects on what would happen if he is effectively dismissed.
“As the Constitution says, the Vice President, Mr. Borrero, will take over. We will be vigilant so that he begins to take actions and decisions; that he launch public policy in terms of security, that he execute the budget, since President Lasso cannot even execute the general budget of the State; May he reduce violence in the country. (Borrero) will be a transitional president until the 2025 elections. It will not be easy for him. We know that the country is in chaos, but we will be vigilant of his actions, “says Pazmiño.
Congress requires 92 of the 137 votes to dismiss Lasso, accused of alleged embezzlement in the management of the state shipping company Flota Petrolera Ecuatoriana (Flopec).
According to the complaints, the president, in power since 2021, continued with a contract signed before he took possession for the transport of crude oil with the international group Amazonas Tanker, which left losses of more than six million dollars.
Aged 67, the former banker is once again between a rock and a hard place. Last June Parliament tried by direct vote to remove him amid violent indigenous protests against the high cost of living. Congress, on that occasion, lacked 12 votes to finalize the removal due to a serious political crisis and internal commotion.
If he is saved again, Lasso will only have to “see how the country continues down the cliff” by having to govern with an opposition Congress and without communication bridges, constitutionalist Rafael Oyarte told AFP.
The opposition “the only thing that interests them is destabilization over and above the stability and institutional strengthening that the country so needs,” said the Minister of Government, Henry Cucalón, to the press. He called the trial a “ruse,” adding that “there is no process or evidence that can support an indictment or removal.”
