In Ecuador, a new phase of the impeachment process against President Guillermo Lasso for the alleged crime of embezzlement concluded on Wednesday.
Ecuadorian President Absent from impeachment hearing
The National Assembly’s (Parliament) Oversight Commission concluded the charges phase and the discharge of evidence cycle that is part of the impeachment process against the President of Ecuador.
The requesting party confirms that there are sufficient elements for the dismissal of the lasso.
Viviana Veloz, assembly member of the Civil Revolution, declared: “All the tests that we have evacuated and practiced today prove us right and prove the responsibility of President Lasso.”
He said, “They said impeachment was short but impeachment is more alive than ever and the evidence presented proves it.”
President Lasso refrained from attending the instance to announce his statement and hired a defense attorney who, after supporting exonerating evidence, pleaded not to recommend impeachment.
The assembly member who requested the test confirms that there are other versions, such as the former manager of the public company Flopec, which would reveal the political responsibility of President Lasso.
The impeachment process has been stalled by the president’s threats to activate the constitutional mechanism to dissolve the assembly.
Ana Belen Cordero, the president in charge of the Oversight Commission, said the commission has 10 days to prepare its report. The technical team of the commission will prepare a draft which will be presented to the members of the assembly for consideration and voting before May 6.
With the approval of the report recommending or not impeachment, it would be sent to the head of the National Assembly for subsequent debate, where 92 votes are needed for Lasso’s final dismissal.
