The keys to the political trial of Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso

A week has passed since the first political trial in the democratic history of Ecuador.

The president, Guillermo Lasso, faces the charge of alleged embezzlement, which passed the filter of the Constitutional Court.

The questioning legislators from the UNES bench accuse him of having allowed a million-dollar contract between the state oil transportation company, Flopec, and the

Amazonas Tanker Pool, to be maintained.

Lasso denies the accusations and assures that the signing of the contract occurred in previous governments, and that even during his term the public company has received "unprecedented profits" because they complied with the technical recommendations observed by the Comptroller, he said.

The contract between both companies began in 2018, when Lasso was not yet president.

But the legislators say, in the impeachment request report, that the president knew about the irregularities that were happening inside Flopec and that instead of terminating the contract that "was detrimental to the State," he fostered corruption. with the designation of officials who kept it in force.

The case is also being investigated by the Prosecutor's Office, which was opened as a result of the leaking of audios published by the La Posta portal, which involve senior officials of public companies in Ecuador in a network of corruption and influence peddling that reaches the brother-in-law of the agent

In the Legislature, the agenda of appearances and taking evidence began on Monday, April 18, in hectic sessions amid shouts and interruptions from the assembly members that led to a motion to separate the president of the Oversight Commission.

According to the regulations, this stage will last ten days, after that, the Commission must write a report in which it decides whether to recommend impeachment to the Plenary Assembly or not.

But even in the event that the Commission does not approve a favorable report or cannot agree to vote, "at the end of the day, the 137 assembly members have the option to convene and decide whether or not to continue with the trial," Libya explains. Rivas, parliamentary lawyer.

If this is the scenario, in a single session, the arguments of both parties will be presented and President Guillermo Lasso must appear before the plenary session to defend him.

After that session, the assembly members must vote in 72 hours for a possible censure and dismissal of the president, to get there, the process has less than a month left.

This is the first time that a president has been subjected to impeachment since the approval of the Ecuadorian Constitution in 2008. Before that, the country's political instability led to three coups d'état involving seven presidents in a decade.

With this background, it is also the first time that the country uses the rules and not the streets, says political analyst Pedro Donoso, which prevents "presidents from being ousted for being crazy (former president Abdalá Bucaram was dismissed for mental incapacity), and that The little of Ecuador's institutionality is working in this process”, he adds.

In the end, the political trial will be determined by votes, which is taking place in a complex social situation with a high level of insecurity affected by organized crime that keeps the population in anguish with extortion and violent deaths.

But also in an uncertain political scenario "where the five functions of the State are in crisis," says Donoso.

Among these, the National Assembly itself "composed of legislators without political parties or ideologies", affirms the analyst, who can give the president an advantage, because "it could be very easy for the Executive to capture those votes and it is unlikely that 92 will be reached for the presidential impeachment," he adds.

If it is the case that the parliament does not get the support to censor and remove Lasso, "finally it throws us to the heat of the streets and they will become the real scene of disputes and that the government can call a cross death or even in a presidential succession”, analyzes Donoso.

President Lasso has on his desk the option of pressing the cross death button, a constitutional figure that gives him the power to dissolve the Assembly and call early elections and of which he has already said that he will use it if the

against him.

But one of the three causes established in the Constitution must be fulfilled: that the legislators obstruct the government plan, due to a serious crisis and internal commotion and that the Legislature has assumed functions that do not correspond to it, only for this last point, the president needs the filter of the Constitutional Court, in the other two, the only interpreter is the president.

For Rivas, although the decision is at the discretion of the president, "it must present the grounds to arrive at that affirmation, because the fact that the Assembly is carrying out a political trial cannot affirm that it is a serious political crisis," says the parliamentary lawyer, and the key is that the process passed the control of the Constitutional Court, which with its decision recognizes "that the Assembly has this power of oversight, political control and that it is the counterweight of the Executive function," he adds.

The consequences of activating the death cross are also unknown, because this constitutional figure had not been used before, which surprisingly, the UNES political group -led by former President Rafael Correa-, the same one that has brought Guillermo Lasso to impeachment, He asked in a statement to decree the death cross as a "democratic way out" for the country "in the face of the serious political crisis and internal commotion" that Ecuador is experiencing.

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