Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso confirmed on April 2 that he would submit to impeachment proceedings against him for the alleged crime of embezzlement in the case known as El Gran Padrino, but did not rule out using the “cross death” method to dissolve Parliament.
“I must face the Ecuadorian people; I could not dictate the ‘crossed death’ leaving the doubt of what would have happened with the impeachment, because I am a democrat, because I put my chest to the bullets in all areas of my life,” he told the local Ecuavisa channel.
The President said that the country deserves to know that its President has acted correctly and dares to show the truth and, once and for all, the connection between drug trafficking mafias and corruption among some legislators.
In addition, he questioned that he intended to be politically prosecuted for a contract signed in 2018, three years before he became President.
He stated that Flota Petrolera Ecuatoriana (Flopec) had profits of US$180 million in 2022.
He affirmed that this is the fourth occasion they intend to give him a coup d’état and five other attempts to revoke his mandate in 22 months.
In addition, he pointed out among the conspirators against him former president Rafael Correa (2007-2017), indigenous leader Leonidas Iza and the leader of the Social-Christian Party, Jaime Nebot.
After an hour of interview, President Lasso did not rule out that he could use the tool contained in Article 148 of the Constitution, which empowers him to remove legislators from office, after which the National Council must call for general elections.
“So dynamic is the creativity of some assembly members and these triumvirs of the conspiracy [Correa, Iza, and Nebot] that suddenly they make me change my mind; it all depends,” he said.
Lasso will have to undergo impeachment after the Constitutional Court gave way to the request of a legislative commission, approved by 104 votes out of 137 legislators.
The head of state is held responsible for not ordering a judicial investigation after learning of two reports that warned of alleged corruption in public companies and links with drug trafficking of political operators close to the presidential circle, such as his brother-in-law, businessman Danilo Carrera.
One of those linked to this process, businessman Rubén Chérrez, a friend of Carrera, was found murdered last Friday in his residence in a seaside resort on the Ecuadorian coast.
With information from Sputnik