Ecuador’s Lasso accepts being examined over Pandora Papers, but not “a circus”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Ecuadorian President, Guillermo Lasso, assures that he has not committed any “fault”, “contravention,” or “crime” and that he is willing to be investigated over the Pandora Papers, but that he will not submit to a “circus” in the Assembly.

“I forcefully tell you that I have not committed any of those faults, infringements, or crimes. None, None!” insisted the President in an interview with Efe when questioned if “since 2013” he has incurred in crimes of tax “front-running, evasion or avoidance”.

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After a fleeting and successful vaccination against Covid-19, Lasso faces this last month not few obstacles, which have included a state of exception due to a prison and crime crisis, social protests over fuel increases, and a parliamentary blockage to his economic reactivation reforms.

PANDORA’S BOX

Shortly before traveling to COP26 and Spain, Lasso spares no documentation to convince the public that he has fulfilled his tax obligations and that his appearance in the so-called Pandora Papers does not imply a violation of the law.

“I got rid of all these investments, and most of those companies were liquidated. They don’t exist anymore!” he said when evoking a 2017 law that prohibits public officials and political candidates from having assets in tax havens.

And he denounces his opponents because “repeating the same thing every time is like telling us the story of the discovery of America as if it happened today”: “If they find any company that I had in the past well, of course, I had it in the past, but not now.”

“When I wanted to be a candidate, I organized everything to get rid of those investments, and many of those companies were liquidated. Absolutely liquidated”, he stressed.

Because of the Pandora Papers leaks, Lasso has two open investigations, one in a parliamentary commission and another prior investigation, in the Attorney General’s Office due to a complaint by a political activist, Yaku Pérez. Both of them demand to know the President’s tax past and how he disposed of those assets.

“There is my tax history. Let whoever wants to investigate it, whoever corresponds according to the law, which is not the Assembly’s commission,” he said, arguing that a person who “has paid (taxes for) 588 million dollars in 15 years, has no reason to hide absolutely anything.”

For the President, the Constitutional Guarantees Commission is nothing but a “circus” in the hands of an “ideological” opposition to which he does not intend to “lend himself”, and for this reason, when he was summoned, he sent “a letter with very detailed, clear and forceful information”.

In the letter, he detailed his patrimony and companies that he had abroad when he was “a natural person” and in which he urged to be summoned last and to be questioned in the Palace for “being president” and to avoid “so much circus and humiliation”. Both were rejected.

He affirms that he has “no problem in being investigated” by the Prosecutor’s Office, soe he requested “a special examination” on his patrimonial declaration.

BACK TO DIALOGUE

Since September, he has had another open front: His main project of tax, labor, and investment reforms was blocked, so he has had to divide it in three for its approval.

He has done so after embarking on a new path of “dialogue” with the legislative branch, leaving behind a possible move to dissolve the Assembly and call elections.

“I no longer want to enter into discussions whether it is constitutional or not to send back (the bill). We have reached an understanding to send three different laws as a matter of urgency”.

This path does not convince unions and social organizations, which this week took to the streets to protest his attempts at reforms, the progressive increase in fuel prices – now frozen -, and his appearance in the leaked Pandora Papers.

On Tuesday, the protests led to a violent clash in Quito’s old town and the two-day closure of roads and highways in a dozen provinces at the initiative of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) and its President Leonidas Iza.

For Lasso, however, nothing compares to the riots of October 2019, since, in his opinion, “this call did not have any sympathy from the citizens” and “Iza did very badly in his strike” because “the Government has stood firm”. “Iza, in my opinion, is a person who seeks violence, anarchy (…) We cannot make decisions based on the whims of Mr. Iza”, said the president.

Lasso clarified that the decision to suspend fuel hikes was made after listening to the citizenry and other politicians in the Assembly.

THE COUNTRY’S INTERNATIONAL IMAGE

The President does not hide his “concern” about the international image that the country may give amid political uncertainty, protests, and a state of exception due to the growing insecurity.

He alleges that it is “the scenario that produces a gentleman like Iza, who instead of sitting down to dialogue and understand reasons, believes that things are solved with sticks, stones, fists, and blows, and this government will not allow it.”

“These will be my explanations so that all businessmen understand them because, in short, these marches are things that are repeated in Latin America, France, Spain, and even in the U.S.A. Therefore, it is something that the business world understands and clearly understands,” he concluded.

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