First modification:
The Ecuadorian government describes as an attempt to “destabilize” the congressional report that recommends a political trial against President Guillermo Lasso for an alleged case of corruption involving his brother-in-law. The opposition considers that the president was warned of the existence of this plot and did not act.
Congress adopted this weekend with 104 of 137 votes in full Congress the “Report of the Great Godfather: Crimes against the Public Administration and State Security”, carried out by an anti-corruption commission.
“It is not an act of control but of evident destabilization,” said the Minister of Government, Henry Cucalón, in a video. For his part, Lasso wrote on Twitter that the approved report “lacks logical, probative and legal support.”
Some audio files released by the La Posta portal allegedly involve Danilo Carrera, the president’s brother-in-law, in a corruption scheme mounted in public companies. Hernán Luque, former delegate of the president on the board of the Public Company Coordinating Company (EMCO), also appears allegedly involved in the plot.
Lasso asked the Prosecutor’s Office to “develop all the pertinent investigations, with all rigor and depth.” He also denounced that the Congress report “contains unrelated musings about alleged acts of corruption”, but despite this he has asked the Executive to “answer with speed” the requirements of the Prosecutor’s Office.
The adoption of this report opens the way to initiate a political trial against the president, but to get there, there must be a formal request from a third of the assembly members, that is, 46 deputies.
Then it would be up to him to study the petition to the Constitutional Court to give the green light to its process in Congress and so that Lasso can finally be removed, 92 votes are required, two thirds of the assembly members.
Last June the opposition failed in its attempt to remove Lasso by failing to get the necessary votes.
