Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso has delivered a scathing criticism of opposition lawmakers as his impeachment trial begins on Tuesday, amid heightened tensions in the Andean nation.
“You are anti-legislators,” he said in an impassioned speech from the floor of the National Assembly in Quito. “I accuse you of trying not only to undermine the credibility of the presidency, but that of democracy.”
Lasso, a former banker, is accused by the opposition-controlled legislature of embezzlement related to contracts awarded to the state-owned oil transport company Flopec. He denied the charges and called them politically motivated. The contracts in question were awarded in 2018, three years before he took office.
“No contracts or amendments were signed during my tenure,” he said, holding up a copy of a non-binding report from the legislative oversight committee that found no wrongdoing.
Lasso, who is struggling with health issues and needed help to get on the podium, accused the opposition of fabricating a “fictitious situation”.
“The same resentment they profess against me is the greatest proof of my innocence,” he said. “There are national laws and principles to which we owe our loyalty.”
Congress is expected to hold a vote on censure and impeachment of Lasso this weekend. A qualified majority of 92 out of 137 legislators is needed to secure his dismissal. Last week, lawmakers agreed to move forward with a trial by a simple majority of 88 votes from the 116 members present.
Lasso’s chances of surviving the latest proceedings dimmed further on Sunday when Congress re-elected Virgilio Saquicela, an independent who supports Lasso’s impeachment, as president. Lasso’s Creo party found itself without representation on crucial oversight committees.
“Lasso’s chances have never been good, but Sunday’s vote shows that it is very possible that he will be censored and impeached within five days,” said Sofía Cordero, a Quito-based political scientist at the Observatory. political reform in Latin America.
Despite applause for Ecuador’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign and a debt restructuring agreement with China, Lasso has struggled to govern since taking office two years ago, unable to overcome a hostile congress and unable to contain a rise in drug-related violence.
Lasso said Tuesday that the impeachment process limits the government’s ability to fight crime. Ecuadoronce one of the safest countries in the region, has a murder rate comparable to Mexico.
He could survive impeachment this week, though analysts say he would become a lame duck with emboldened opposition in Congress.
“None of the available options are good,” Cordero said. “They all bring instability, uncertainty and ungovernability.”
At any time before his withdrawal, Lasso could dissolve congress and call presidential and legislative elections under the Ecuadorian constitution’s so-called mutual death clause. In this scenario, he would rule by decree – overseen by the constitutional court – for six months while elections are held.
Lasso told the Financial Times last month that he would activate the clause if Congress decided to oust him. But opposition lawmakers, as well as Saquicela, said such a move would be challenged by Congress.
Hundreds of the president’s supporters gathered outside the Legislature on Tuesday morning. “Lasso, people are with you,” they chanted when he arrived.
“I came to personally defend democracy,” he told them before entering the building alongside his cabinet.
María José Rosas, who works in communications, showed up with a group of friends. “We are here to show our support for a president who is facing political persecution,” she said.
On the other side of the building, a group of opponents chanted “Lasso out!”
The coalition to impeach Lasso crosses ideological boundaries. The left-wing Union For Hope party – led by former President Rafael Correa, who lives in Belgium to avoid jailing for corruption – has pledged its 47 votes to remove Lasso. The right-wing Social Christian Party also supports impeachment.
The indigenous Pachakutik party could prove decisive. He split last week on whether to press ahead with Lasso’s trial, although on Sunday he broadly backed Saquicela’s re-election along with other impeachment supporters to senior positions.
Amid uncertainty in Congress, indigenous leaders have threatened to call for a resumption of protests that paralyzed the country last June.
“If the government makes the wrong decisions and causes a social reaction. . . we are going to declare a national mobilization,” said Leonidas Iza, the anti-capitalist leader of the powerful Conaie indigenous federation that led the protests. “We will stay tuned.”
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