The opposition loyal to former president Correa deepens the political crisis in Ecuador and launches to remove the president

Guillermo Lasso, president of Ecuador, in a file photo. JOHANNA ALARCON (Reuters)

With an Ecuador paralyzed for two weeks and with the population dismayed by the protests of indigenous organizations, the Citizen Revolution of former president Rafael Correa has seen the propitious scenario to launch to remove President Guillermo Lasso.

The left-wing movement presented this Friday, in the midst of the government's negotiation with the protesters, an initiative in the National Assembly to force the departure of the Head of State.

The Union for Hope (UNES) bench, made up of politicians loyal to former President Correa, does not have enough votes from the rest of the opposition for the motion of censure to prosper, but it does have enough to propose it and put it to a vote, at a time of maximum political turmoil in the country.

Since the indigenous communities began to march and block the main Ecuadorian highways on Monday of last week, the shadow of correismo - the current that supports Rafael Correa, despite the fact that he cannot participate in politics due to a conviction for corruption - hovers like background of the crisis of national stability.

In the words of the ruling party, Correa is "the coup leader" for having traced the route to get the president out of the Carondelet Palace.

Less than 24 hours ago, Correa revealed his intentions in a message on Twitter.

“If Lasso had some responsibility and patriotic love, he would put his position under consideration,” the former president launched a day before his related legislators made the impeachment attempt official.

“Since he is not going to do it, we will have to collect signatures to revoke it,” he concluded.

This Thursday, the maneuver took shape with the mass announcement of the UNES bench to take the initiative to the Assembly, protected by article 130 of the Ecuadorian Constitution, which justifies the presidential beheading when there is a "serious political crisis and internal commotion" .

The crusade between the two titans of current Ecuadorian politics, the acting president against the most important president of the last decade, has displaced social unrest and the movement of protesters in the street to the background.

The political future of Ecuador is defined with this maneuver in an imminent definitive pulse.

The president, socially conservative and economically liberal, is cornered before only two alternatives.

Either he exposes himself in 72 hours to the onslaught of correismo and, therefore, he submits to the vote of the National Assembly or he counterattacks and launches the crusade death against the Legislative.

Both options are risky routes.

On the one hand, he only has 27 fixed seats in his favor out of a total of 137 and it would be up to the other opponents to support the president or not.

On the other hand, if he opts for the cross death, he gets rid of all the assembly members, who are dismissed by the president, but he must call elections in a maximum of six months and govern within that period by means of decrees.

The positions of the other legislative opposition blocs will be decisive in the coming hours.

The entire UNES bench promotes the dismissal with 46 supports, but the majority of Pachakutik -the political arm of the indigenous peoples who have been protesting for two weeks- and the Social Christian Party, which was an ally of Lasso to reach the presidency but felt betrayed afterwards, they are the ones who can tip the balance with their votes to give the president oxygen or to force his immediate departure.

Both have spoken out against the removal of the Head of State and national instability, but both also blame President Lasso for not having done anything to resolve the social and economic problems that have caused the poorest rural communities to explode.

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